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42 Fantasy Writing Prompts & Plot Ideas

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These 42 fantasy writing prompts and plot ideas are waiting for you to write them into your next big novel, screenplay, short story.

Dark haunted lake in forest

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Need a good story idea quick? These fantasy writing prompts and plot ideas can be used as inspiration to write your next epic tale. You can use these story ideas and prompts for all types of creative works, whether it be a novel, screen play or other fictional short stories.

fantasy narrative writing prompts

The Magic World of Writing Fantastical, Epic Tales

I’ve always loved writing fantasy, simply because in fantasy you can leave all your worries about the real world behind. Fantasy writing is your chance to explore your imagination and discover all sorts of magical and mysterious things.

One of the biggest perks of fantasy writing is unlike realistic fiction, there needs to be no logical sequence for how things happen. You can finally use magic as a reasonable and acceptable explanation for everything.

Like all of our  writing prompts , these fantasy fiction prompts and plot ideas are varied on a number of different subjects that can fit into the fantasy genre. Many of these fiction writing prompts can be used for sub-genres of fantasy, such as paranormal romance, urban fantasy, magic realism and more.

Not a fan of the subject? Prefer to stick to medieval times? Any of these epic story ideas can be adapted easily simply by substituting the suggested character with your mythological creature of choice.

Don’t forget, if you like some aspects of a prompt you can always change it for your own needs and what interests you most. The possibilities are endless, and I know there is a book idea here waiting for you to write and publish it .

Even if you don’t have any intentions of writing a fantasy novel, there are many benefits of practicing creative writing with these fantasy writing prompts. Set a timer for 5 minutes and let your imagination run wild with one of these prompts – you never know where it may take you.

Fantasy Writing Prompts for Creative Fiction, Novels, Short Stories, Screenplays and More

fantasy narrative writing prompts

These writing prompts are open to your own interpretation and imagination. Many are purposely open-ended to give you a lot of flexibility for the way they are used. Ready? Let the writing begin!

1. The Snow Dragon: You are in the mountain forest when you come face to face with the snow dragon: an adorable, furry, and surprisingly tiny creature who breathes fire.

2. Street Signs: After a young man is killed as an innocent bystander in the cross-fires of gang violence, you notice a mysterious symbol appear on the side of a building.

3. Lilies of the Valley: As the new housekeeper for a prominent wealthy family, one of your tasks is to water all of the house plants. You are watering the lilies in the entry way when one of the plants starts talking to warn you of a dark family secret.

mythological currencies writing prompt

4. The Coin Dealer:  You are at a Coin Show when you meet a coin dealer who specializes in collecting mythical currencies.

5. The Fairies Next Door: Being new in town, you decided to introduce yourself to the neighbors. When you knock on the door, you are greeted by a small army of fairies who take you captive.

6. Water Vs. Dirt: There are two major groups of people who live on the planet. The water people, who use water for everything, and the dirt people, who use dirt for everything. Can they learn to co-exist peacefully, or will their entire world become mud?

potions, inc. a fantasy fiction prompt

7. Potions, Inc. : After centuries of a small occult family developing successful potions for love, fortune, and health, the oldest son decides to launch the family business of magic into the corporate world.

8. If Walls Could Talk:  After moving to a new town, the Smith Family thinks they found the perfect home. That is, until the walls begin to talk and they learn the house is cursed.

9. Empire of Misfits:  A secret society of misfits decides to take over the world, learning to use their greatest flaws as super powers to succeed.

10. The Invisible Castle: A group of friends decide to climb a tower near their home when they discover it leads to an invisible castle in the air that no one else knows exists.

11. Ghost  Pirates:  Legends claim a notorious pirate buried his treasure along the rocky shores of the cove. James and his girlfriend are at the beach one night when the ghost ship sails in.

fantasy writing prompt photos

12. Photographic Travel: You stare at the man in the photo and wonder what his life might have been like. Next thing you know, you and the person in the photograph have swapped places.

13. The Benevolent Beast: On the edge of town is a giant and fierce looking beast but is actually quite friendly. When strange occurrences start happening in the town, the beast is a prime suspect. Can you protect the beast and clear its name?

14. Gilbert The Giant Goldfish: Life in the koi pond only appears to be peaceful…

15. The Magic Key: After failing in his career and marriage, Will discovers a magic key that unlocks doors that open into a new world.

fantasy writing island queen

16. Island in the Clouds:  The Great War left the people of her kingdom stranded on a tethered island in the clouds…

17. Dancing Fever : As the townspeople are overcome with a feverish desire to dance, it’s up to you to find the cause and cure.

18. Paranormal Detective : He has a knack for solving mysteries with the help of a ghost who gives him clues.

19. Darkness Made Daily: The factory you work at is frequently rated “Top 10 Places to Work” across the country. Workers have wonderful health benefits, generous salaries, and plenty of paid vacation time. When your co-worker at the assembly line mysteriously vanishes, it’s up to you to uncover the evil truth of what the factory is manufacturing and put a stop to it.

darkness made daily writing-prompt

20. The Arctic Mermaid:  Living deep in the icy waters of the Northern Atlantic Ocean are the arctic mermaids, who rescue a child being held captive on a ship.

21. Ring of Storms : “It’s just one those silly mood rings…” or is it?

22. No Words: Mike makes a promise to a mysterious vagrant on the street that leaves his wife speechless.

23. The Psychic Hospital : After being involuntarily committed into the psych ward for being delusional, a patient must somehow convince the doctors all she experiences is real. She is not crazy – and neither are the other patients.

24. Forever Beautiful : You are a cosmetologist at a local gossip-filled beauty salon when you accidentally stumble across a map that outlines the path to the legendary fountain of youth.

25.  Out of Paradise: You just got kicked out of heaven. Now what?

26. The Crossing Guards:  The crossing guards at a busy intersection of the city do more than just help the living humans walk across the street.

27. Second Chance at Life: At a hospital on one stormy night, the souls of two patients agree to swap places when it becomes obvious neither one will ever be able to return to the life they once knew.

28. The Cowboy and The Witch : He is an outlaw from the wild, wild west and she’s a witch from the Old Country.

29. The False Light Gods: A group of evil entities attempt to trick people into believing they are the good guys by disguising themselves as saints, angels, gods, and goddesses.

30. Utopian Anarchist Society : Tired of the kingdom’s latest . It’s time to do something about it and so you begin your plans for creating the perfect utopian anarchist society.

31. Spirit Radio: After a few too many songs come on the radio at random coincidence, you realize you have a gift to communicate with spirits through music.

32.  Flying Cupcakes: A little girl is visiting a busy bakery with her nanny when she  enters the enchanted kitchen and is whisked away into the land of cupcakes.

33. Cosmic Address: You discover there’s a reason the address of your childhood home is 382 Orion Way.

34. The Perfect People: On the outside, they appear to be perfect. Of course, things are never as they actually appear…

35. Soul Fragments: When something tragic happens, it’s often said we lose a piece of ourselves. Your task is to travel through different lifetimes to find these lost parts of self to be whole again.

36. The VooDoo Queen:  The fraudulent fortune teller makes her living by conning the local superstitious government officials. When they start to become suspicious, she decides to make a run for it through the bayou where she encounters the ghost of the real VooDoo Queen.

paranormal fantasy writing prompts

37. Ghost Train : Every night, you are awakened by the sound of a train, but the railroad closed down years ago.

38. Trash to Treasure: While exploring an abandoned trash dump location off the coast, a young boy discovers an ancient sword.

39. Planet of Sorrows : It is a place of suffering, brokenness and despair.

40. Reading the Heavens : Each person has a designated star in the sky above. When the stars align, they will be lifted to go home to their true planet.

41. Miners Cove: After a mining village is swallowed by a sinkhole, all traces on the surface disappear, but the civilization continues on in secret for centuries. When modern day explorers come to claim and develop the land, the underground colony must do what they can to protect themselves and their secret world.

42. The Mirror, Cup, and Candle : Legend has it, if you stand in front of a mirror holding a cup and a candle you can jump between dimensions.

Need Some Help Writing? You May Also Like:

  • How to Write a Novel in 4 Steps
  • How to Outline a Novel
  • How to Write Over 2,500+ Words a Day
  • List Character Development Questions

Looking for even more writing prompts? Don’t forget to check these out:

  • 365 Creative Writing Prompts ,
  • 101 Poetry Prompts
  • 300 Kids Writing Prompts

I hope these fantasy writing prompts helped spark your imagination. Whether you are looking for a different and unique style of creative writing exercises or are looking for the elusive perfect novel idea, this list will hopefully get your creativity flowing. And don’t forget – National Novel Writing Month is November!

Do you have any other ideas for fantasy writing prompts not included here? Share your fantasy story writing prompts or plot ideas in the comments section below – you never know who you might inspire to get writing.

And as always if you do write anything using these prompts, we would love to know about it! Tell us where we can find your stories in the comments below, link to this list from your own blog, or use the hashtag #thinkwritten on social media.

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Chelle Stein wrote her first embarrassingly bad novel at the age of 14 and hasn't stopped writing since. As the founder of ThinkWritten, she enjoys encouraging writers and creatives of all types.

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80 comments.

I plan on writing about one of these ideas for one week every night, thank you for sharing these ideas!

You’re welcome! I’m glad it inspires you to write!

Keep writing! My life depends on it!

I’m not really what you would call a writer. But I plan on becoming an author one day, and I believe these ideas will help me along that path. Thank you so much.

That`s actually a good idea.

Thank you for these awesome ideas. They make me feel so enthusiastic.

Glad you enjoyed them!

Wow thanks now I can begin my own series and add more to the story

I have an Idea for a prompt… A girl named Summer is born on The Summer Solstice of 2003, the date that a hero from a prophecy is supposed to be born. When Summer turns 16, Mordred, King Arthur’s supposedly dead nephew, rises, and attempts to take over the world, Summer must team up with Iclyn, A girl born on the winter solstice, with winter powers (summer had summery powers) Lily, a girl with powers born on the spring equinox, and Autumn, a girl with powers born on the fall equinox. The girls train to be knights to defeat the mighty Mordred, before the alignment of the planets, when he will become too powerful to fight.

This one is really good for a fantasy novel

That’s sounds like an awesome story and i would love to read it when its finished😊

I would love to use this prompt of yours! It’s really inspiring.

Wow that’s so awesome ur idea is so cool, keep on writing ur gonna be really great author at this rate👏🔥💯👍

I really like that story and if you just finished it and published it,i think that story would go viral!

That sound awesome!

This idea is amazing! You’re a great author and this will make a super cool fantasy book! (like you said, Shreya)

These Ideas are gold! I plan to use a few of them! You are awesome.

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed them!

“Cliche” medieval settings? Ouch. 😔

I’ve been using these for my weekly 200’s at school and they’re really awesome!

I have written 7 books so far but, and yes, it’s a big BUT, none have managed to catch a big publishers eyes or be the word out there for it to reach the masses. Looking for a big publisher for my 8th manuscript. Shaida mehrban

Hi Shaida, have you considered working with an agent? Sometimes they can help you find a publisher and may be able to give you some feedback on what might make your books marketable. Hope that helps and hopefully you will be able to publish one of your books soon!

I think that some of these are very good, such as the patients that are thought of as crazy story, and the candle in front of the mirror, but others are a bit childish.

I’m glad you were able to find a couple that intrigued you!

“You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.” – Madeleine L’Engle

HI, I have a question? Can I get permission to use the ideas in my stories!

Hi Monica, you are welcome to use any of these ideas in your stories. If you publish anything online, we would love it if you could cite our website as inspiration and share this page so it can help inspire others! Thank you for asking and let us know if you write something, we’d love to check it out. 🙂

Hi just to double-check!!! I can have permission to use your story ideas If I later decide to publish books! And become an Author and get pay, IF I could get permission!!!

Ten years after being abandoned to the care of her alcoholic father, the eldest of a pair of identical twin sisters tries to track down her estranged mom. The problem is: the only person who has a clue to her whereabouts is a young boy she hasn’t seen in nearly twelve years. But, he’s not really a boy. He’s a centuries-old fairy who appears mostly human. Except for the fifteen feet raven wings sprouting from his back. What really happened on the night the girl’s mother disappeared, and why does it feel like she isn’t being told the entire truth about her.

Thanks for sharing your plot idea H.R.!

Novel ideas to rejuvenate our creativity

I have so many story ideas and I did wrote some out but threw them away (oops) I did write a story but lost interest in it cause so much stuff was happening and now, I’m trying to focus on 1 but don’t know where to begin or how to write it :< I really like fantasy and your ideas are cool ^^

Glad they inspired you!

Story Idea you meet Jesus Christ in person no one believes that’s him !! what would you do?

I need help writing a plot for my stories about mermaids and fairy in a school setting???/

Story Idea a beautiful women uses her charm and beauty to get out of poverty and uses people to get what she wants because she thinks she deserves the best, in the end everything comes back to her. Story Idea Two sisters exasperated a birth one rich one poor meet again and switched lives one goes to replaces the others life and lives a lavish lifestyles the bad sister while the other takes care of the other family the good sister!

this is a nice idea and i would really like to see what u have got.

I was thinking about an idea for a novel and I was wondering if you had any thoughts on it.

Eren Hawkings wakes up from a coma after a dangerous car crash. During his Coma, he has strange visions that show to him the future of the world. And Eren’s entire life layed out before his eyes. During these he finds out that he will find true love. However, his love will die at a very early age to a rare virus. He will not pass through college, becoming a victim of a school shooting. His friends leave him to survive on his own in the world. How will he handle these visions, and will he be able to stop these visions from becoming reality.

(I’m only 13 and still learning the steps to becoming an author)

There’s really no such thing as a bad idea for a book – it’s all in how the story is told and how it develops. I was 14 when I wrote my first novel – it’s simultaneously the worst and best thing I’ve ever written. The worst because I was a beginner and its badly written. The plot is a disaster, the characters are cliche, the grammar is painful.

And yet, it’s still one of the best things I’ve ever written. Writing something badly is what helped me become a good writer. {And writing things badly is actually the entire premise of the book I’m currently publishing!}

The best way to learn is by doing. Start writing! You can always edit/revise/write a different story later.

Story idea: There are four ancient tribes in a feud. Little do they know, a darker force than them all intends to get rid of them. Four girls from each tribe, intend to find out why the feud started in the first for the sake of saving there tribes.

It is somewhat like Hunger Games

Good ideas, guys!!!!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

Great Ideas, thinkwritten! They’re really inspiring!

i am doing a fantasy book for kids for school and i need ideas

Hi I just want to repost my idea. A girl wakes up and she has no idea where she is. Soon, she realizes that she is trapped in a laboratory/maze inhabited by a crazy alchemist or somewhat. The reason she’s captured is because in her past life, she had a terrible secret that he needs to know. But she refuses to tell him the secret after she communicates with the ghost of her past life. eventually, she escapes and defeats him and saves her past life and her present one. Except, she is unaware that since she doesn’t tell him the secret, there is a terrible cost about to destroy her utterly.

I kinda changed it.

I love that idea. Thank you!!

I’m planning a DnD campaign with a general, really loose idea, using these to fill in some gaps and make it more interesting.

Heyo! This was very useful, thanks yours so much 🙂

I’ve been trying to write a really good story for a while but I’m stuck. Can you give me any ideas including the following? Thanks in advance. (I will be checking my email every day for your reply 🙂

Fantasy Elements Jars Mystical Creatures

Hi. I have an ideas but I get writer’s block. I can’t write properly. My idea to develop is the Ghost Train or The Snow Dragon 🙂 can you please help me write a story and help get rid of my writer’s block 🙂

thanks a lot i’m behind lots of essays and you saved my life thanks a lot I will come here if i need any more ideas. – See you later

Story Idea: Nora Redford has grown up without a mother. When one magical Christmas Eve she is given a wish, she asks to see her mother. Nora is given a map to the Island of The Dead and she goes on an adventure through different worlds to find her mother.

This would be a good book

if anyone publish stories on these concepts will u remove that particular concept???

Possibly, maybe. Depends if you follow my original open source licencing model.

Oooh I really like it!Is it okay if I use it?

Every time i go over to our grandmas my cousins and i all play these games based on fantasy and Mid evil. Lately we have run out of ideas, so i am for sure book marking this also my parents tell me to write so this will make it a lot more fun!

Here’s my idea:

In Northern England, a gang of teenage girls discover a magical jewel that belonged to the Romans. The Romans used that Jewel to put a curse on their newly conquered land, a curse that would turn all teenage girls there into boys. When the Romans left Britain, the curse was revoked and they destroyed any evidence: expect for that one jewel. They buried it and made a sign reading “Non tangere” (do not touch) next to it. the teenage girls ,manged to get it and horribly pronounced the magic Latin spell next to it, awaking the curse.

This has been really helpful. Thank you so much.

Thank you very much!!! My english teacher assigned me a homework of writing a novel in a month.. These plot ideas are so cool and helpful!! By the way, isn’t the ‘soul fragment ” plot similar to Voldemort’s in the Harry Potter series? And, I have another problem..I just can’t think of a really rare female character name. Could someone please suggest me some names?

Perhaps, Rivera, Eve, or even Coral?

Well, one more thing that people could write at the end of the story is that it was all a dream!

Hi, there! I want to write a story of the Nutcracker but I am stuck tight! I’ve written several attempts on the story but every time, I bump into a wall. Something’s just not coming out the right way. Need some help here!

Hi Mary Ann, did you create an outline? That can help you identify a roadmap for the story so that when you hit a wall you know which direction to go. Keep trying, I know you can do it!

Very well-written! Thanks for sharing this great article Chelle.. Writing Fantasy Fiction doesn’t have to be daunting and difficult. Thank you!

Dren kind of works; I’ve used it for a character who’s transfluid, but I don’t know what you’re swinging for :P.

There’s also Feven, which looks weird but it’s pronouned like Raven but with an F, so it’s pronouned Fay-ven, or Fae-ven. The spelling is also changeable, since it’s your character! Do what fits.

Farah, which I just think is pretty. :>

Nimah, which I also find pretty. (I find a lot of things pretty XD)

Leyra, which is also changeable, Laerah, Leira, do what you feel is right.

Kioni, (pronounced key-o’-knee; funny spelling huh?) I had a friend named Kioni, and I just thought the name was pretty unique.

Soriah; (pronounced as it is, so-rye-ah, and the spelling can be changed!) my older sister was going to be named this, but at the last minute she was called Christa instead. (Christa is just a variation of Krista, as my name, Jayda, is a variation of Jada.)

If you’re feeling fancy, you can even use my middle name, Zaharra. Or Zara if you want it shorter.

That’s all from me! Hope I could help!

So uhh this is my short story that I made for the first one. The Snow Dragon. It’s kind of long so if you don’t want to read it then it’s fine but I saw other people doing this so I thought why not? I trek up the mountain, putting one foot in front of the other, determined to finally get to the top this time, while the sky falls in tiny crystal balls around me. Soon the snow starts plummeting down in sheets, blocking my path and covering everything, the trees, the grass, and the ground in a sheet of white. Trying to escape the gloomy weather, I look for a cave. I remember finding it the last time I was exploring the woods and mountains near my house. The truth is, I live in the middle of nowhere and it gets quite lonely when you are the only person your age around. It’s just my mother and father, who are faithful farmers. My father goes to the village nearest here every other week in our only carriage to trade food for clothes and other necessities. If I remember correctly, the cave is somewhere around the clearing a few meters ahead. After searching more thoroughly, I find it carved inside the edge of a hill covered by the shade of trees and bushes. The gentle snow seems to have turned into a storm in the last few minutes. I step inside and take off my scarf that was covering my face and finally breathe freely. I rub my hands together to create some heat. After I have made myself comfortable, I finally take in my surroundings. The cave is dark and covered with jagged rocks everywhere I look. Every nook and cranny is sharp and the shadows dance in the changing weather, taunting me to come to them. There are a few insects scuttling around on the floors. I see a spider web on the rocks. A flea is stuck on it. I walk in deeper, ready to investigate the strange cave further. As I trudge along, I see something that makes me freeze. Something big and alive. There is some sort of creature in the furthest corners of the cave. And it seems to be sleeping. As I walk closer to it, I make sure to keep my footsteps light. Now I am standing right on top of it. I think that it is an animal. It’s skin is white, it’s head is tucked into itself and it is curled into a ball. Definitely sleeping. The creature’s white tail is flipping back and forth as if it is having a pleasant dream. No, wait, that’s not skin. That’s scales. The entire animal is covered in scales. Strange. I have never seen something like this before. Only small animals like snakes and reptiles have scales. I reach my hand down to touch it, now only centimeters away. The tip of my finger brushes what I’m assuming is the head. The tiny creature whips it’s head around and a growl arouses from its throat. I stumble back in surprise and fall back on my behind. The animal stands up on all fours and shakes its head, letting out a small blast of fire in the process. You see, the white scaled creature isn’t an animal at all. It’s a dragon.

These are the best writing prompts I have ever seen! I love this site and your writing! Thank You! #Never Stop Writing!

Hi, I am having trouble with writing a book. I have writer’s block and I need ideas for a story about people from a different planet looking for people with the same birthstone to tell their secrets but I have no clue where to start. I been wanting to write stories but I am 14 and have no clue where to start.

I meant people from a different planet going to Earth in a disguise looking for a person that believes in fantasy place. Then the people from the different planets will reveal their true identity only to them if they tell any one the people from the different planet fade in color and turn gray. I need names for these creatures and a way how to do it. I don’t know if I want to do a comic book, chapter book,or picture book.

I need help writing this story. I would be happy if help me with a story starter for this story.

I need title ideas. Something fantasy-wise. Thanks -Book Worm

I´m writing something with the four basic elements and how these four teenagers have powers. So far, I have Flare, Aura, Wade, and Sten. Flare has fire, Wade has water, Aura has air, and Sten has earth abilities. They live in different realms. I would like to hear your ideas.(If you guys have any)

These are amazing ideas can i use one

Of course, that is why they are here!

They are great.

what a good idea i love the second one

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The 60 Best Fantasy Writing Prompts for Your Book

  • by Sam Howard

In this article, I will provide an in-depth look at fantasy writing prompts that you can use to spark ideas for your own fantasy stories. Whether you want to write an epic fantasy novel, a short fantasy story, or something in between, these prompts will help unleash your creativity.

You’ll learn about the key elements that quality fantasy fiction has in common, what goes into a compelling fantasy story, different subgenres of fantasy to explore, and a whopping 60 fantasy prompts to ignite your imagination. My goal is to give you plenty of inspiration to start writing your own fantasy tales.

In this article, you will learn:

  • Common features of fantasy stories
  • Criteria for good fantasy writing
  • An overview of major fantasy subgenres
  • 60 unique fantasy ideas to use as starting points

Commonalities in Fantasy Fiction

While fantasy stories can vary widely, from high fantasy epics to paranormal romance, most quality fantasy fiction contains certain core elements. Understanding these common building blocks can help you craft a compelling fantasy tale within any subgenre.

Nearly all fantasy stories contain some form of magic or supernatural phenomena. This magic system doesn’t have to be elaborate, but it generally establishes what’s possible in the fictional world. The mechanics and limits around magic guide what characters can plausibly think and do.

Additionally, fantasy novels typically take place in worlds very unlike our own modern-day reality. While urban fantasy and magical realism bend this rule, most fantasy realms feature invented geographies, histories, cultures and politics – creating an immersive setting.

Fantasy protagonists also tend to go on an epic hero’s journey, facing increasingly difficult external conflicts on quests with high stakes. Internal conflicts often run parallel, with characters battling their own flaws and demons even as bigger foes materialize.

And although tropes aren’t mandatory, incorporating classic fantasy elements like magical swords, wands, spells and mythical creatures can help signal to readers that fantastical adventures lie ahead.

What Makes a Fantasy Good?

Like any fiction, compelling fantasy writing usually shares certain basics like dimensional characters, solid pacing, an interesting plot and engaging themes. Still, I’ve noticed some particular qualities that help set great fantasy tales apart:

  • Unique magic system – The magic may not be explained in granular detail initially, but original fantasy worlds feature systems governing supernatural forces that feel fresh rather than derivative.
  • Rich worldbuilding – Vivid descriptions breathe life into new environments, their histories, inhabitants and cultures. This convinces readers the setting is worthy of emotionally investing in.
  • Relatable characters – Whether human or otherwise, protagonists and central figures invite understanding through authentic characterization and motivations. Their beliefs and inner lives reflect the fantastic world.
  • Clever dialogue – Conversation often crackles with personality even amid strange circumstances. Witty repartee between characters fuels charged dynamics.
  • Riveting action – Suspense escalates through mounting confrontations, accelerating pacing, higher-stakes drama and new magical discoveries that propel the plot.

Of course personal taste plays a major role too. Composing fantasy with complex themes or injecting humor also attracts loyal audiences. But master the story essentials above while delivering the magical escapism fantasy embodies, and readers will surely come.

Types of Fantasy

Fantasy fiction encompasses a spectrum of subgenres, each with distinctive traits. Having an overview can help you orient your ideas within the style of fantasy you’re most excited to write:

  • High/Epic Fantasy – Stories told on a grand scale, often in entirely fictional secondary worlds with sprawling geography and elaborate histories. Densely-plotted heroic quests to defeat supreme evil drive intense action. Prominent examples include Lord of the Rings and George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire .
  • Sword & Sorcery – Quest-driven tales focused on mighty warriors, wizards and assorted fighters navigating peril with steel and magic. Generally lower stakes than epic fantasy. Often feature wanderers exploring rich lands from Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian stories to Kull the Conqueror .
  • Dark Fantasy – Fantasy with horror elements and grim undercurrents. Prevalent atmosphere of darkness or dread surrounds macabre magic, death and destruction. Case in point, the harrowing worlds of The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant or the graphic novel series Berserk .
  • Urban Fantasy – Supernatural stories unfolding in contemporary real-world settings, typically cities. Magic and magical beings exist in hiding, unknown to the mainstream. Series like Harry Potter as well as The Dresden Files falls under this category.
  • Magical Realism – Fiction where fantastical elements subtly intrude on otherwise-normal environments. Often Literary fiction exploring cultural hybridity through a touch of the extraordinary. Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude epitomizes the style.
  • Mythic Fantasy – Fantasy tales drawing on the themes, symbols and elements of ancient myths, legends, folklore or fairy tales. Modern examples include the web novel Lore Olympus , a retelling of Greek mythic romances, or Catherynne M. Valente’s Deathless , which reimagines a Russian folk tale.
  • Portal Fantasy – Involves characters entering unfamiliar, magical fantasy worlds through portals connecting them to our primary Earth reality. C.S Lewis’ beloved The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe helped codify conventions of the genre.

Of course additional hybrid subgenres abound too like comic fantasy, supernatural fantasy, science fantasy and more. As you explore ideas, having touchpoints like these can unfold helpful context.

60 Unique Fantasy Prompts

Now you have a solid grounding on key aspects of fantasy and its major categories. Harness all this knowledge along with the expansive 60 fantasy prompts below to kickstart your next writing project within the genre you love.

I’ve grouped prompts into handy subsections matching different facets of fantasy. Feel free to tweak or combine prompts as you see fit to develop your own tale etched with original magic.

Portal Fantasy Story Starters

  • A child discovers an enchanted mirror in an abandoned house that serves as a portal to another world.
  • Siblings find their late grandmother’s ornate wooden wardrobe transports them to the magical land she often told stories about.
  • Every year on their birthday, a person dreams the same dream – of a glowing cave beckoning them to enter. On their 18th birthday they discover the actual glowing cave while hiking nearby.
  • A young witch-in-training finds a portal inside a tree hollow that leads her to the future domain of her powerful future self.
  • An archaeologist excavates a temple from an ancient civilization with a magical portal at its center, still active after all this time. Where might it lead?
  • A video game enthusiast discovers that the VR world of their new game engine is an actual alternate reality.
  • A photographer takes a tumble while shooting urban architecture, only to enter a portal into a bustling epic fantasy city through a clever trompe l’oeil mural.
  • Every house on a block contains a hidden portal to a different fantasy world – except the cranky old man protagonist’s home. When he discovers a young girl trapped and unable to activate her house’s portal, they set off on an odd couple adventure.
  • At a magical lake, people enter the water beneath a full moon to briefly visit whoever they’ve lost that they miss most in vision-like dreams.
  • A fairy ring of mushrooms in the forest actually serves as a portal between worlds. A mother and daughter each independently take shelter among the mushrooms from rain, ushering an unlikely reunion in the magical realm the portal leads to.

Urban Fantasy Story Ideas

  • A busy lawyer discovers their high-powered wardrobe contains enchanted clothing that allows them to manifest their words and soothe frayed nerves around them.
  • Gargoyles mysteriously appear on buildings throughout a city. When people walk beneath them after sundown, their greatest ambitions manifest unconsciously.
  • A blogger finds handwritten fairytale poems fluttering in the streets. They discover the poet they memorialize died years earlier, yet their ghost continues creating through magic ink that materializes their verses.
  • A jaded bureaucract discovers a secret pocket realm accessible through filing cabinets in their office where unwanted documents and office supplies become enchanted.
  • A vigilante hacker develops a computer virus that deploys magical rather than technological effects, serving surreptitious justice on corrupt officials undermined through inexplicable luck.
  • A chocolatier uses enchanted confections to help customers relive their most cherished memories while enjoying inventive sweets, until the magic goes awry.
  • A developer converts dilapidated warehouses into wildly successful commercial properties by making droves inexplicably view their imperfections as quaint through an enchantment. However, without keeping the spell in check the glamour produces catastrophes.
  • A painter creates impossible combinations of real realms from dreams by mixing enchanted ink into their watercolors. Trouble arises when people leap physically into the worlds on canvas without the magician’s permission.
  • A grandmother runs a magical greenhouse passed down generations where every flower’s scent imbues a unique imagining gift when inhaled. As surrounding neighbourhoods destabilize, enticing buyers threaten the family legacy and community peace the greenhouse protects.
  • A chic fashion designer sews impossible dresses that render wearers unnoticed in public spaces, allowing celebrities reprieve and young female interns escape from harassment. However when a customer wants to adapt her stealth designs to commit crimes, she must fight back.

Dark Fantasy Story Ideas

  • In a realm where necromancers are priests, graveyards become animate with the rattling bones and shambling corpses of those mourners fail to appease through proper funereal tributes.
  • An amoral wizard-artificer breeds terrifying beast-machine hybrids by infusing strange pulsating relics into flesh, bone and iron during unholy experiments, slowly losing their humanity in the process.
  • A cursed charm from ages past compels its possessors to transfer the Hello through murder alone so they might live. The chain of possessed “inheritors” spans centuries leaving macabre legends, like an archeologistInheritor driven to study and ultimately pocket the ancient artifact that possesses them next despite all warnings.
  • Every year villages offer up people chosen by lottery to a towering labyrinthine prison as tithes appeasing its monstrous warden – except this year, chance selects the beloved daughter of a grieving mother who vows to topple the entire tithe system and destroy the warden who keeps it in place no matter the cost.
  • Poisonous purple clouds spread from a crater where a mysterious obsidian meteor struck, their lethal miasma driving people to madness before painful death sweeps them away. Desperate holdouts too poor to flee struggle to survive while negotiating fragile alliances.
  • A ruthless band of treasure hunters seeking mythic riches slaughter their way through an old-growth forest but encounter wrathful plant spirits and sentient trees that manipulate nature itself to violently expel the invaders.
  • An innocent child is born with emerald eyes that involuntarily turn those who behold them into lifeless onyx statues over time. They must find a way to hide their curse from superstitious townspeople who would condemn them for witchcraft.
  • Harrowed parents in in an isolated village cut off from outside aid can only watch their loved ones fall prey to a contagious werewolf curse transforming helpless victims monthly beneath the full moon. A lone misunderstood wizard may be able to help before it’s too late.
  • Shadowy nightmare beings thrive on human fear and take monstrous shape from an individual’s personal phobias before entering bedrooms unseen to feast. A young girl fights sleeplessness as she desperately learns how to lucid dream so that she may turn these creatures of darkness into her own guardians against harm.
  • A violent clan of nomadic raiders invades a suspected witch’s well-hidden sanctuary domicile seeking to capture and torture her for nefarious purposes. But they soon discover her cabin in the dark forest contains uncanny horrors guarding far greater secrets within which promise terrifying power should they seize it as their own.

High Fantasy Story Starters

  • In a land where dragon riders defend humanity against otherworldly threats, an orphan stable hand discovers an abandoned dragon egg and faces backlash as they raise the hatchling in secret, forging an unbreakable bond.
  • An exiled knight errant and mage masquerading as a common sellsword venture deep into forgotten valleys chasing legends of a fallen kingdom’s lost treasure, but release an ancient guardian entity in the perilous ruins below.
  • A womdering ronin samurai and mystic swordsman with a cursed blade joins forces with rebel guerillas and a young rural farm boy working to end a tyrannical warlord’s conquests. During a pivotal confrontation at the despot’s stronghold, it’s revealed the protagonists all hail from the same ninja shinobi clan.
  • A soldier spared from death during a decisive battle gradually transforms into an undead revenant beholden to sinister forces because of the necromantic axe that saved his life. Seeking a cure, he returns to his home village but learns even greater dangers haunt his once idyllic community.
  • A plucky thieves guild urchin who narrowly escapes captivity and her orphan friends accidentally unleash an imprisoned magical creature while hiding in castle ruins. Its freedom could spell salvation or doom for the kingdom.
  • A gifted apothecarist monastery acolyte mistakes a crucial ingredient during an accelerated plague remedy trial, inadvertently creating a ravenous undead epidemic infecting the abbey’s medicinal garden instead of the life-saving panacea everyone hoped for.
  • After an ambitious noble house launches a coup against the crown, the deposed queen entrusts her newborn heir to loyalist allies who disguise themselves as common laborers as they ferry the scion to safety through contested territory. The babe bears a unique birthmark signifying they are the rightful future ruler.
  • The sole surviving member of a legendary guardian order embarks on a dangerous quest to convene compatriots in a desperate attempt to combat the malevolent god recently freed from its aeons-long imprisonment now threatening civilization anew.
  • A court jester hailed as the cleverest in the land is actually a powerful mageSaboteur patiently dismantling the empire subjugating the mages through subtle magical pranks embarrass leading officials. However, when the king brings in an estranged childhood friend as an inquisitor who sees through the deception, the fight turns serious.
  • After frightened woodcutters report a phoenix roosting in a shadowed glen once struck by lightning during a dry storm, druids debate whether its glorious immolation ritual signals ruin or rebirth while opportunistic trappers encroach against all advice.

Magic Discovery Story Prompts

  • While salvaging equipment from an alchemical workshop, a tinkerer haphazardly activates an experimental transmutation engine revealing new metals and gemstones but can’t control what it conjures, attracting greedy opportunists and magical investigators alike.
  • An obsessive aristocrat commissions explorers to chart rumored ley lines crisscrossing her lands hoping to harness ambient magical energy flowing through them. But breaching these channels of power has unintended effects even the mysterious ley walkers they consult against better judgement couldn’t predict.
  • In a magic academy where rival factions vie for prestige and sway using illegally-obtained relics stolen from crypts, museums and private collections, a principled teacher tries limiting growing corruption as repercussions from meddling with dangerous artifacts shake the arcane institution’s foundations.
  • An antiques appraiser routinely consults mystics whenever they encounter particularly beguiling magical objects of inscrutable origin, but after they help a powerful benefactor procure a set of seven rings believed crucial for a secret unity ritual, reality itself seems to glitch and blur around them.
  • A tribal shaman hunting fungi components to restock their village’s medicinal stores realizes the magical mycelium network binding specific flora grants personalized visions of possible futures after accidental overexposure. Sharing this revelation could enable defensive premonitions yet invites outside exploitation.
  • Academics excavating a newly uncovered tomb complex note its strange hieroglyphs glow whenever workers disturbed lost relics and scrolls strewn about the premises. Exact deciphering proves difficult but points to catalogues of profound magical knowledge awaiting proper translation back at the university.
  • Over multiple generations spanning centuries, successive guardians of an enigmatic lighthouse ensure its beacon fire continues burning to luminously outline treacherous shallows and navigate ships away from rocky disaster. But the latest caretaker worries their diminishing eyesight risks losing track of a delivery shipment carrying the secret flame’s fuel – luminous nighthawk eggs harvested only under a blue moon’s sight.
  • Far from colonial authorities in balmy tropics, secreted among volcanic peaks and plunging ravines, autonomous villages still prosper by distilling elusive absinthe liquor through unique botanicals granting imbibers reality-warping and time-bending qualities when sipped sparingly. An exiled occultistdecrypts production secrets in order to barter access home.
  • When hostile treasure hunters probing a seam of glowstone in the abyssal depths of an ancient dwarven mine complex inadvertently unearth a towering titan imprisoned for instigating the legendary War of Fire Giants, their screaming vanguard flees for the surface to spread warning while veteran champions steel themselves to make a heroic last stand against the fiery colossus they’ve unleashed until reinforcements hopefully still versed in binding runes and shielding wards arrive in time.

Mythic Creatures Story Ideas

  • An amateur cryptozoologist receives photos depicting an unknown serpentine beast spied coiling amongst legendary loch waters, prompting a dangerous pursuit to confirm rumours suggesting this mystical lake entity survives against all odds using chameleonic camouflage mechanisms to avoid modern detection.
  • While surveying prospective marshland real estate, curious scouts discover timid willowy beings with leafy hair resembling botanical dryads shyly withdrawing amidst the isolated bog.their disturbance risks permanently scattering these rare sylvan spirits before conservation efforts establish protected areas.
  • Daring divers conducting submarine surveys along a remote archipelago document an elegant tribe of humanoids swimming through crystal waters with bioluminescent skin, membranes between elongated digits, and gently swirling spines running from nape down backs evoking mythical merfolk. Attempts to discretely monitor them raise urgent preservation questions once footage leaks publicly.
  • Supposed extinct miniature stallions with pearlescent spiral horns projecting from their foreheads turn up mystifying wildlife experts seeking to verify their validity as alicorns and pinpoint origins of the diminutive equines inexplicably spotted in various surprising locations worldwide given lack of previous sightings. Where did they emerge from and how did they proliferate globally?
  • While researching folk beliefs associated with a puzzling root vegetable grown by rural cultivators, an ethnobotanist finally pieces together why superstitious farmers harvest these specific tuberous plants according to lunar cycles. It seems consuming them under moonlight alters people’s perceptions towards seeing capricious pookah fae shapeshifting through forms.
  • Baffled pet owners across several cities surreptitiously consult veterinarians after hours concerning their animals’ unusual behavior patterns, but the consensus suggests certain elemental sprites remarkably reactive to pollution and habitat disruptions have begun intervening through willing animal vessels letting them convey crucial environmental restoration messages.
  • A celebrated chimera in antiquity renown for its oracular sight and wisdom unexpectedly resurfaces after centuries dormant to reluctantly help a perilously fractured kingdom, but its sphinx-like proclamations prove so cryptic that divine decipherers must convene to properly unravel prophetic statements encoded within imagery-rich verse.
  • exploring a tidal cave network reveals crude bioluminescent cave paintings depicting now extinct mega faunas living amongst early humans, yet one hitherto unidentified sauropod they spot outlined multiple times near vital freshwater outlets suggests maybe a special phoenix-like regeneration is involved accounting for why this particular colossal species still roams secluded sites according to rare sightings.
  • After inheriting an eccentric relative’s overgrown estate, the new groundskeeper gradually befriends gargantuan guardian statues prowling the property each night that their ancestor had long ago awakened from stone hibernation using ancient runic synergies. Now fully sentient yet still bound by geas-fueled oaths to defend sacred boundary wards against trespassers in perpetuity.
  • Investigating terrifying instances of dangerous predators found mysteriously slaughtered throughout remote mountain hiking trails points to the legendary involvement of a massive fur-covered humanoid people come down seasonally from hidden villages nestled amongst cloud-piercing peaks to harvest resources, leaving occasional violent calling cards warning human settlers away.
  • Clearing out a backyard garden plot, homeowners unearthed strange skull fragments alongside unusual claw and vertebrae remains resembling no catalogued regional wildlife. However, after unexpectedly animated beings self-assembling from these unknown animal bones and sinew subsequently carry their whining dog away towards the forested foothills, frantic owners contact monster hunting occultists and sabermetric scientists to identify what may have emerged and strategize safe retrievals.

These 150 fantasy writing prompts offer a treasure trove of story ideas you can explore within magical realms of your own imagining, whether building out entire worlds or just enhancing life’s hidden wonders. From portals leading across dimensions to mythical beasts and magical objects with cryptic purposes, let these prompts stir your creativity.

Remember the key ingredients that make fantasy tales resonate. Bake in rich worldbuilding, dimensional characters, suspenseful pacing and themes that connect with readers. Study classics of the genre you wish to emulate while putting your own distinct spin on tropes. Keep magic and supernatural forces integral without overshadowing interpersonal relationships, inner turmoil and relatable conflicts that bring fantasy down to earth even amidst the extraordinary.

Most importantly, believe fervently in the realms you envision and pour passion into each enchanted word set to page. If you thoroughly enjoy building new worlds and want readers to find the same wonder escaping routine reality, then fantasy fiction offers endless gateways forescape. Now step through the portal of your imagination – let these prompts guide your journey into fantastical storytelling!

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fantasy narrative writing prompts

Fantasy writing prompts: 200+ ideas to create magic

  • Post author By Jordan
  • 4 Comments on Fantasy writing prompts: 200+ ideas to create magic

fantasy narrative writing prompts

Looking for ideas to write epic or dark fantasy, academic (school-set) fantasy or the comic variety? Find 200-plus fantasy-writing prompts below for writing flash fiction, short stories or something longer

Fantasy writing prompt categories

Looking for ideas to write epic or dark fantasy, academic (school-set) fantasy or the comic variety? Here are 200 fantasy story ideas to help your readers escape from everyday life. A creative writing prompt can be fun to do and can spark a new novel into being, or help you overcome any common storytelling challenges you may be faced with. 

So, let’s get those creative juices flowing! Find the 200-plus fantasy writing plot ideas and prompts below for writing flash fiction, short stories or something longer:

Use the table of contents below to jump to one of twenty fantasy writing prompt categories:

  • Magical discovery
  • Magical laws and rules

Magical objects and talismans

  • Spells, rituals and potions
  • Magic in the real (primary) world

Magical alternative worlds

Fantastical or mythical creatures, curses and forbidden magic, prophecies and legends, witches and wizards, magic schools and teachings, enchanted and other magical places, time travel and other magical transport, swords and sorcery, riddles and trials, alchemy and transformation, unique cultures and societies, morally grey magic, magic’s constraints, heroic vs destructive fantasy characters.

Explore the fantasy writing prompts below and get more insights into writing fantasy in our complete fantasy guide and hub .

fantasy narrative writing prompts

Fantasy writing prompts on magical discovery

Magic takes many forms in fantasy literature, from spells, sorcery and enchantment to teleportation, telekinesis, and more.

Use these fantasy writing prompts to come up with scenes , story ideas, flash fiction exercises – whatever you want.

  • Write a story where a person discovers they have magic powers only for a specific day each year (or once-off). What is the significance of this day? Why does it unlock their ability?
  • The most famous witch, wizard or mage in the world discovers a new power that spells disaster. Write a comic fantasy (or dramatic/tragic take) on this scenario.
  • A fledgling novice in spell craft discovers a place that amplifies the potency of their powers. Write a story exploring this place – how they use it, its origins, the significance of the discovery.
  • Write a story in which a student accidentally turns their class into [insert objects/animals/transformation] and explore the ensuing chaos and restoration of order.
  • Write a story in which a librarian discovers a book with magical properties in the stacks. What is the book and what does it empower them to change or do?
  • During a camping trip, a group of friends discovers magical powers that change their lives forever. Write their story.
  • Write a story about an overworked [insert profession here] who discovers they can become invisible at will (and the help and hindrance this brings].
  • A baker/chef/jeweler/florist/funeral home operator discovers their wares/services have magical properties or powers. Explore the consequences.
  • Write a story in which a lawyer discovers magical abilities that aid them in court unbeknownst to tough judges and juries.
  • A child discovers they can breathe underwater and so they explore sunken ships around their coastal town as they get older, until they make a troubling discovery. Write their story.

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Prompts on magical laws and rules

In many fantasy stories and novels, magic has costs, rules, laws like our physics.

Explore these fantasy writing prompts on magical laws and rules for ideas and story starters:

  • Write a story where a child discovers they have healing powers, yet they come with a terrible price. This means they must choose treatment recipients carefully. What are their criteria?
  • Write a story where a character is ostracized from their magical community for using forbidden magic and joins a band of misfits.
  • Write a story about a rule-keeper in a magical world who harbors a secret about their own potentially ruinous rule-breaking.
  • Write a story where a new bill has been passed outlawing magic, and the unlikely group of magic-doers who band together to see it overturned.
  • Write a story set in a world where there are five laws shapeshifters have to abide by, and the protagonist breaks all five with dire consequences.
  • Tell a story about a world in which magic is allowed under three, non-negotiable conditions. What are they?
  • Write about a magical world where a law forbids magicians from using their craft for personal gain, and a loophole the protagonist exploits.
  • There is a cut-off age after which people in a magical world cannot awaken/unlock their magical powers. Write a story about a character rapidly approaching this cut-off, and something they urgently need magic to achieve.
  • Using magic to alter someone’s appearance is a high-risk, illegal procedure. Write a story where someone is disfigured by magic gone wrong, and the ways this affects their life. How do they struggle or triumph?
  • Write a story about a rebel who creates a new spell that has never been used before, and the unforeseen consequences that result.

Fantasy literature is a warehouse of talismans, rings, and other magical objects.

Explore 10 fun fantasy writing prompts incorporating enchanted or otherwise magical objects:

  • Write a story about a magical pendant and three generations of women who hand it down (with the same caution).
  • An antiques dealer unknowingly sells a young couple a cursed object. Write a story about how the item leads to precarious situations.
  • Write a story in which a protagonist hangs a protective ward above their front door, and the hell that breaks loose when it is stolen (try a dark fantasy tone/mood).
  • Write a story about a magical compass-like device that instead of showing north shows where to find [blank].
  • Write a story about a key, the origins of which the protagonist doesn’t know until several pieces of a magical puzzle fall into place.
  • Write a story about a jeweler who makes magical talismans, the essential component they run out of, and an intrepid quest to obtain more.
  • A candle burns indefinitely and cannot be extinguished, until [insert event], which will signal [insert prophecy fulfilled]. Write the full story.
  • A hat gives its wearer the magical ability to summon tulpas (clones) of others do their bidding. What happens when the hat falls into the possession of destructive figure?
  • A ring that casts a protective shield around its wearer falters at a pivotal moment with serious consequences. Write the full story.
  • Children spying on a visiting relative find a curious geometric object on their nightstand. It creates a portal to a terrifying other world. Write the story.

Dr Seuss quote why fantasy is necessary

Spells, rituals and potion

Fantastical stories are full of rites and tinctures, magic spoken and decanted.

Use the following ten prompts to explore weaving magic in stories and resulting mysteries:

  • Write a story where the protagonist gets the ingredients for an important spell wrong (and the havoc that ensues).
  • A graduating class of mages must perform a ritual according to exact instructions to seal and fully realize their magic. Write a story about a class whose ceremony is disrupted, and the consequences in each of their lives due to not completing the necessary rites.
  • An age-reversal spell as an unforeseen side effect. Write the full story.
  • A forbidden spell lands a young magician in hot water (but attracts the attention of a group of magic rule-breakers who see a use for the protagonist in fulfilling their aims).
  • A potion testing causes dramatic changes in a magician’s apprentice’s personality with troubling or hilarious consequences. Write the full story.
  • A spell that is meant to bring a positive change to a town has the opposite effect. Explore the turning point and fallout.
  • A magical system uses spells requiring [insert ability]. Write a story about a differently abled magician and the trials they face as they excel and overcome despite their peers’ advantages.
  • Write a story about a powerful sleeping spell and the criminal who uses it.
  • A truth spell backfires making the recipient reveal an uncomfortable truth that cannot be ignored. Write this story.
  • A group of friends discovers a ritual that lets them swap bodies. Explore the hilarity or disaster that ensues.

Magic in the real/primary world

‘Primary’ world fantasy stories situate magic in protagonists’ home settings (such as Earth). For example, in urban fantasy, magic unfolds in modern, regular cityscapes. Tweet This

Explore ten fantasy writing prompts for stories set in primary worlds:

  • A young adult stumbles across a park in their city that they never knew existed where they have a mysterious conversation. It’s an abandoned lot when they next return. Write the story.
  • A deep-sea diving expedition finds a magical world in the lowest sea trenches which changes everything they thought they knew (and inhabitants alert them to a pressing danger). Write the story.
  • A barista in a small town’s favorite coffee shop discovers they can grant wishes like a genie. Write their story.
  • A supercell storm has something mysterious at the root of the updraft its creating. Write about the magical phenomena behind the event.
  • Tourists visiting a desert landmark uncover an ancient magic far more dangerous than the tropes of mummies’ curses they’ve heard. Write the story.
  • An evasive stray [insert domesticated animal] in [insert city] may have magical powers (or it could just be freaky happenstance). Write the story.
  • A mysterious graffiti artist becomes active in a bustling city, and wherever they strike, strange beings start appearing. Write the story.
  • An urban planner comes up against an opposing magical force in a city that makes executing their plans a nightmare. Tell the story.
  • A mysterious train with an unfamiliar number appears in a city’s underground system, somehow avoiding causing collisions. Write a story about the inter-dimensional beings who use this line.
  • A writer discovers a typewriter in garage sale in their hood that brings to life whatever they write about with tragic/funny consequences.

Secondary or alternative worlds in fantasy fiction transport characters (and readers) to mythical lands.

Try 10 fantasy story prompts to explore portals and other magical passages:

  • Catching the wrong bus by accident leads a middle-schooler to a school that resembles their own but is located in a secondary magical world, perhaps with magical creatures. Write the story.
  • A protagonist has recurring dreams where they hear a haunting piece of music. They hear the music in the real world right before stumbling into another magical one. Explore the music’s origins.
  • Write a story in which a protagonist must choose between passing through a one-way portal to another world to right a wrong and seeing their friends and family again.
  • Explore an invented fantasy world where there is no land and people have adapted to entirely aquatic life (and the myths they have about when there was land).
  • Write a story where a secondary world has become inhabitable, and people live in settlements in the sky in the hope of returning to land one day.
  • Write a story where planets are connected via a similar type of portal. Only a select few know of the portals and may pass through them. Some do good while others are more destructive.
  • A character stumbles across a world where books and writing are taboo and have all (or almost all) been destroyed. What are the results?
  • Write a fantasy story where the protagonist finds a secondary world where people can manipulate the weather, light, or other physical processes using magic.
  • Write about a secondary world in which climate catastrophe has led to magical solutions for acquiring scarce resources or living in inhospitable terrain.
  • Explore a city built on giant, roaming beast in another world, and what characters find when they venture beyond this known world.

Fantastical, mythical creatures abound in fantasy and its subgenres .

Explore fantasy writing prompts for venturing into the wild:

  • Write a fantasy story about a phoenix-like creature that is reborn when it dies and the rare abilities being present during this process bestows.
  • The inhabitants of a world where magic is dying out have heard of a mythical creature which they think will be the solution or salve. Tell this story.
  • Write a story about a mythical creature that is rumored to exist, a character determined to find it, and the magic (or is it happenstance?) that surrounds their hunt.
  • Write a story in which three mythical beasts appoint humans who live in three regions as their guardians, bestowing magic, and the conflict this scenario leads to.
  • A small village is terrorized by a mythical creature that is rumored to dwell in the peaks of a tall mountain. There is a famed magician who is rumored to have tamed one. Write the story.
  • A character is transformed into a mythical creature and must survive hostility from their community who mistakenly believe they are the creature behind their own disappearance. Write the story
  • Write a story where a character develops the ability to communicate with animals who issue a grave warning.
  • A family adopts a pet not realizing it is a mythical creature with magical powers. Write their story.
  • A dragon slumbering beneath a populous city awakes after centuries of sleep. What happens next?
  • A hunter befriends a magical, mythical creature while out on the hunt. They confront a shared foe. Write their story.

Curses and forbidden magic in fantasy literature often create renegade shadows and other troubles.

Try your hand at ten fantasy writing prompts on illicit and underground magic:

  • Write a story about an apothecary who brews potions promising transformation and prosperity (but doesn’t warn patrons of their true price).
  • A character is cursed to be unable to venture beyond a restricted area. Write about the unlikely ally who stumbles across them and how they help lift the curse.
  • A forbidden spell can grant a wish yet requires an enormous sacrifice. Write a story about its user.
  • A child is cursed to be aged during the day and their true age at night. Write this story.
  • A townsperson’s unkindness to a stranger brings a tide of unceasing misfortune to a town. Explore how and why the curse resolves.
  • A curse on a leader means they experience the suffering of every individual in their kingdom as if it were their own. Write their story.
  • A forbidden book of spells falls into the wrong hands. Write a story in which three spells cause increasingly worse consequences.
  • A character uses forbidden magic to impress someone. Write about the evil they unleash unwittingly on the world.
  • A forbidden magic that enables a young girl to enter others’ dreams leaves her with a moral dilemma when it means she could stop bad events. Write the story.
  • A community exiles a magician right before realizing they are the only one with the power to overcome a major threat. Write the story.

Fantasy and fairy tales alike are full of prophecies and legends, tales of deeds past and future.

Play with ten fantasy writing prompts on the clairvoyant and long-rumored:

  • A prophecy foretells a true leader will be ascendant when [insert trial] is fulfilled. Write the story of a child who fulfils the prophecy and what happens next.
  • A prophet is treated by their community as crazy and ostracized, but they are dumbfounded when magical events give veracity to their claims. Write the story.
  • A prophecy predicts a leader will fall in a battle where the odds are vastly in their favor. Write the story of their defeat and the fantastical circumstances surrounding it.
  • Legend tells of a strange house deep in the woods. Write about the character who sets off to find it and the magical events that transpire.
  • A protagonist is prophesied to reunite three warring kingdoms. Tell their story and how they achieve this unlikely feat.
  • A mistranslated prophecy leads to the formation of a dangerous magical cult. Write about the individual who unmasks the true, original meaning.
  • A legend about the past or origin of a people turns out to have been a prediction of their future. Tell this story.
  • A legend tells of a secret city, protected by magic, which holds a valuable solution to a major crisis in the main character’s homeland. Write about their quest to the mythical place.
  • A direct descendent of a legendary magical hero struggles to live up to their name with their non-magical life (until something happens which changes everything).
  • Write a story about a legend, the repetition of which feeds a powerful magic (or magical being), unbeknown to the tellers. What happens when they stop sharing the legend? Write that story.

From the beloved ‘Worst Witch’ series to modern tales of broomsticks and black cats, witches and wizards are fantasy favorites.

Try these ten fantasy writing prompts for a cackle:

  • A society of diabolical wizards/witches disguises themselves as social media influencers and encourage a dangerous new trend that feeds their powers.
  • A witch invents a new type of magical broomstick that solves a huge issue for witches and wizards everywhere, then her business associate steals her prototype to pass off as their own. Tell the story.
  • A witch or wizard’s familiar (e.g. a cat) has a secret they don’t know about to start. The revelation of said secret impacts their future. Write the story.
  • Write a story where a home-schooled witch and wizard must overcome initial awkwardness and antipathy to overcome a common enemy.
  • A witch wants to train the next generation of magical leaders but faces many kinds of opposition along the way. Write their story.
  • A wizard left unable to speak in an accident must find a novel way to cast spells. Write their story.
  • A renowned wizard or witch starts a magic school but everything goes wrong in an endless farce. Write this fantasy comedy of errors.
  • A wizard is hopeless at the exact kind of magic their reputation rides on, secretly outsourcing. Write about what happens when their illusion crumbles.
  • Write a story where a disgraced witch or wizard must restore their reputation by completing a nigh-impossible trial.
  • A witch or wizard develops a potion granting immortality. They must take a chance on dying to test if it works, though. Write their story.

Fantasy quote - why writers are like magicians

Magic schools are a big part of so-called ‘academic fantasies’.

Here are ten prompts to make school rule with wish and wonder (or find the frustrations in fantastical education):

  • Write a story in which a magical school closes for business due to a scandal (and the tricky path to its reopening).
  • A magical college runs out of funding. Tell the story of the magical ways it fundraises and is saved so that it may stay open.
  • A magic school is run by a college of mages and witches instead of a lone principal. Write a story of the tricky politics and dynamics that result.
  • A school for magic has its license taken away by a governing body’s pencil pushers on a technicality. Write about the magic teacher who fights to be able to teach their students and their student relationships.
  • Write a story about a magic school for seniors who discover abilities late in life.
  • Write a story about the ‘in’ group and the outsider misfits in a magic school and their conflicts and eventual truce.
  • A magical academy hides a dark secret nobody wants to acknowledge. Write about the intrepid student who exposes it and the consequences.
  • A magic school makes students swear by seven (surprising) tenets. what are they? Write this story.
  • A magic school that abides by tradition competes with a disruptive new school that upends the old order. Write about a group of students from each school who compete in inter-school events.
  • A magic school runs a foreign exchange program that makes students aware of the very different ways magic is practiced around the world. Write about two students who swap and their experiences.

Enchanted forests, castles and other magical settings in fantasy are full of secrets and wonder.

Explore ten fantasy story starters below that integrate setting into the magic:

  • Write a story about an enchanted bookshop that helps patrons find the exact book they need for powerful transformation.
  • An enchanted lake grants those who swim in it the ability to pause time. Write the story about three swimmers who use their power to very different ends.
  • Write about a café where every order is served with a secret side of magical good luck, until the barista loses their mojo, and each order brings misfortune.
  • Write about a graveyard enchanted to resurrect the departed buried in its bounds on a future date – the story starts at ten to midnight as the date approaches.
  • An enchanted post office sends people not mail but individual magical abilities when they turn thirteen. Write this story.
  • An enchanted hotel makes patrons dream their greatest regrets (and find peace in the process). Tell this story.
  • Write about an enchanted place a character remembers from childhood and revisits to find it in the grip of a curse instead.
  • Write about a river that flows in reverse and a magical ferry on it that takes passengers back in time.
  • A group of travelers stumble upon an island where dreams and nightmares come true that is under the spell of a powerful sorcerer. Write this story.
  • Write about an enchanted club where dancers get lost in the music, literally.

How will characters get around in your next fantasy story? Magic school buses, hippogriffs, something else?

Explore ten fantasy writing prompts and get aboard the inspiration train:

  • Write a story about a magical ship and the equally magical sea it traverses.
  • Write a story where a travel back (or forward) in time yields unintended, troublesome consequences.
  • Write about the magical transport system in an underwater city and the anecdotes of its oldest driver.
  • Write about a character whose magic weakens fractionally with every step, and the choices they must make between freedom and movement.
  • Write a story about a magical submarine that can travel through sea and land and its ragtag crew.
  • Write a story about a commercial flight that never landed and the magical destination its passengers reached instead.
  • Write a fantasy story in which horses are not transportation but serve another, unexpected purpose.
  • Write a story about a magician who can only travel through dreams and is trapped within a single block unless they find a dreamer.
  • Write about a person who discovers a magic library where every book is a portal to a different world.
  • A character is cursed to be a message in a bottle, until someone finds it and reads the note inside. Write about their travels and transformation back (and who they meet in the process).

Swords and sorcery are staples of fantasy fiction, particularly the epic fantasy subgenre.

Try your hand at ten fantasy prompts for swordplay and conjuring epic worlds:

  • Write a story in which a knight must face off against a dangerous magic with only their physical skills and wits.
  • Write a story about a magical sword, the secret property of which is the incapability to cause mortal injury.
  • Write a story about a sword that possesses its wielder, making them do its bidding.
  • A magical assassin crafts a blade from her own shadow that is faster than any other, at a terrible price. Write her story.
  • Write a story about a sorcerer who wishes they were a knight and resents having to use magic but slowly gains appreciation of it.
  • Siblings are destined to become a mage and a warrior, but swap roles and identities to stop a dangerous threat. Tell their story.
  • Write about a sword which heals instead of harms, and three rival factions desperate to attain it.
  • A swordsperson is gifted a magical blade that can transform into almost any object. Write the story of its loss and recovery.
  • Write a story about a duel between sword-wielders whose swords have powerful sorceries amplifying their power, and the path to their final confrontation.
  • Write about a blacksmith who makes magical swords, and the one weapon they wish they’d never made.

Riddles and trials go back to many myths and legends. Think Oedipus and the sphinx, or the twelve tasks of Hercules.

Try fantasy writing prompts to tell stories where riddles and trials play a prominent part:

  • Write a story in which the main character must solve a riddle that requires them to go to three different regions for each of the three-part answers.
  • A magic initiate must undergo five trials of increasing complexity before they are permitted to use their powers. Write their story.
  • A leader sets a riddle for their successor, believing nobody will crack it, yet a challenger solves it via magical means. Tell this story.
  • Write about a secondary fantasy world where disputes are settled by solving riddles or trials instead of other means.
  • A legendary healing item or weapon may only be retrieved upon solving a riddle that requires great learning. Write about a character who spends their life training for its retrieval.
  • Write about a band of adventurers and the shared and individual trials they face, only to learn that magic was not what they thought it was.
  • A book of riddles turns out to be a book of spells where saying the riddle aloud conjures things, unbeknown to the reader. Write the story of the one who finds it.
  • A group of powerful magicians seeks someone to recruit to their order, but first they must solve a series of confounding riddles. Tell the story.
  • Write a story about a thief who must solve a riddle to remove the magical protections where an important but dangerous artifact lies.
  • Write about a physical puzzle, the solving of which unleashes a dark magic into the world.

Transmuting one material into another or physical transformation are ancient traditions of myth- and legend-making.

Here are ten prompts to explore on magical metamorphoses:

  • Write a story about a transfiguration spell that goes wrong, and the hybrid form the caster must now live with.
  • An alchemist can make their own gold, but their greed leads to a serious conflict. Write the story.
  • A sorcerer curses their nemesis to transform into something undesirable, but a mistake gives the other a totally unfair new advantage.
  • Write a story where a character turns into an object by day and is only free at night, and the consequences of this recurring magical transformation.
  • Write a story about a character who can meld forms with their pet and the adventures they have.
  • At transfiguration school, a novice accidentally turns their best friend into an annoying animal. Write about their journey to transform back.
  • A character finds a pair of glasses that shows things’ true form, and makes some startling discoveries. Write their story.
  • Write a story about a jealous sibling who uses magic to swap bodies with their talented, popular sibling.
  • Write about a mirror that turns anyone who looks in it into their worst fear.
  • Write about a magic garden whose plans have transformative properties (but that can only be found under certain conditions).

One part of fantasy world-building (especially if you are creating secondary worlds or writing epic fantasy) is coming up with unique cultures and societies.

Try these ten fantasy writing prompts to explore differences and similarities between peoples:

  • Write about a character who travels to another land on an important quest (and the surprising discoveries they make about how magic practice differs from home).
  • Write about a fantasy society in which magic is intrinsically linked to music-making.
  • In a magical kingdom, magical ability determines rank and status. Write about a character who travels from this setting to a place where all magic is taboo.
  • In a secondary world’s social system, magic has made gender divisions (though not anatomical sex) obsolete. Write about an Earth’s resident’s learning from their travels there.
  • Write about a magical society that values silence above all things, and the chatterbox main character who must make their way there.
  • Write about a society where magic has a demerit system and a person’s powers are taken away through a communal ritual after three strikes.
  • Write about a civilization of elementals who work together to maintain balance, and the interloping main character who upsets said balance.
  • Write about a magical society where spoken words manifest into physical form, and the dangers (real or perceived) of an ignorant outsider’s speech.
  • A society living on a secondary world has no nouns. Write about a main character who travels there and how they learn to communicate.
  • Write about a subterranean society in a fantasy world and the myths that it holds and shares about the land above.

Dark spells, curses and other morally grey uses of magic remind us that power has very different effect according to intention and ethics.

Explore ten prompts for writing stories where magic creates moral quandaries and conundrums:

  • A magician finds an elixir capable of solving a global health crisis. The only problem? Several ingredients are profane or taboo. Write their story.
  • A mage attempts to use time travel to correct magical mistakes, but only compounds the problem. Tell their story.
  • Write a story where a character uses magic to clone themselves, but issues of responsibility arise when the clones start creating clones.
  • A witch has the power to control dreams, but little power to control the realities altered dreams bring about. Explore their story.
  • A wizard creates a magical apprentice, only for the apprentice to grow worryingly beyond their power and capacity for control.
  • Write a story in which a character who is able to switch bodies with others at will leaves a trail of complications and misunderstandings.
  • Write a story about a use of magic for business success that exploits and ends up harming the inhabitants of a small town.
  • A character who discovers the ability to grant wishes notices how their associates come to rely on them so much they lose their individual power and capability. Explore what they decide to do.
  • A mage discovers the ability to resurrect extinct animals, yet their experiments threaten a delicate ecosystem. Explore this story idea.
  • Write a story where a magic-doer uses their powers to punish wrongdoers, but their vision of right and wrong becomes increasingly distorted.

In any fantasy story, magic isn’t a cure-all to everything. Mortality and other risks and conflicts still exist.

Explore ten fantasy writing prompts that factor in the idea of a limit:

  • Write a story in which a character can only use magic under certain special conditions (such as a preparatory spell or in a certain biome).
  • Write a story where a character can heal others but acquires a reduced version of their wounds or sickness through magical transfer.
  • A character’s magic has a small, accumulative, irreversible cost every time they use it. Explore the implications of this.
  • Write a story where the protagonist can become invisible, but with each use the effect becomes more permanent and they grow translucent.
  • Write a story where a character can conjure fire but cannot put out any flame without it causing self-injury.
  • A character is only able to attend magic school if they deceive those closest to them. Write their story.
  • Write about a world where every time a person uses magic, deadly creatures from another dimension are summoned irrevocably.
  • Write a story where using magic drains color from the world.
  • A novice magician can only use spells within a curfew-related period, yet major trouble strikes outside active magical hours.
  • Write a story where any spell may only be used once before it becomes ineffective.

The fantasy genre is full of heroes and villains – white witches, rapscallion ring-bearers.

Try these ten fantasy writing prompts to explore opposite poles of good and evil:

  • Write a story where the heroic fantasy protagonist evolves to become a sequel’s villain due to the suffering they undergo.
  • Write a story from the perspective of the villain who uses dark magic, and explore the good they wrongfully believe they’re doing.
  • An antagonist steals a magician’s abilities and they strive to get them back, only to learn they now function more dangerously than ever.
  • Write a fantasy story about a hero and villain who started out as childhood friends and how their choices led them down different paths.
  • Write a fantasy story where magic gone wrong causes the hero and villain to swap bodies or other features.
  • A hero discovers their mentor has secretly been in cahoots with the villain. Write the story of betrayal and the resulting conflict.
  • Write a fantasy story about a hero who discovers they were cursed or otherwise manipulated to do wrong, and the conflict they can’t avoid to get their true self back.
  • Write a story about a retired fantasy hero who must get back into action due to a new or reawakened foe.
  • Write a comic fantasy about a hero who goes on a grand adventure, but like Don Quixote, the magic is mostly in their mind.
  • Write a story where a villain is more popular than the hero due to charisma or powers of persuasion, and the hero must stand alone.

🗣️ Which is your favorite fantasy writing prompt of all the above? Have your own to contribute? Share it in the comments!

Explore daily writing prompts on literary devices to improve your general craft.

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Related Posts:

  • How to create a fantasy world that everyone will believe
  • Generating ideas for stories: 10 fun ways (plus prompts)
  • Fantasy book writing: 7 tips for captivating high fantasy

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Jordan is a writer, editor, community manager and product developer. He received his BA Honours in English Literature and his undergraduate in English Literature and Music from the University of Cape Town.

4 replies on “Fantasy writing prompts: 200+ ideas to create magic”

200 ideas and 7 ideas about how to use the ideas?! This is delicious. Now I have a Craft Challenge reference (with my personal twist, of course). As for my novel, I usually need more help with filters than ideas 😁 But these are like tiny idea-island getaways. Thanks!

Thank you for sharing your feedback, Margriet (I like the idea of ‘idea-island getaways’) 🙂

Got an idea:

A young knight is considered a champion among his/her people, but the sacrifices he/ she made to achieve the title have stained his/ her good name and he/ she feels like anything but a champion.

Great ideas on here and these will make for some interesting stories.

Hi FreeFly, I love this idea. Thank you for sharing it and for your feedback!

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Story Writing Academy

50 Compelling Fantasy Writing Prompts and Plot Ideas for an Epic Story

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For the creative writer with a strong imagination, writing fantasy stories is a great joy. It allows us to stretch the realm of what is possible and create worlds completely unlike our own, for better or for worse. If you or your writing students need help getting started with your fantasy story, here are 50 exciting fantasy writing prompts and plot ideas to get you started.

50 fantasy writing prompts - text overlay with two pictures of a teenage buy writing in a living room

If you’re looking for a fantasy plot idea for your fantasy novel or short story, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve pulled together 50 of our best fantasy story ideas for you in this post so you can get started right away writing your new story.

The fantasy genre is an exciting one for both readers and writers, as it opens new doors that we may be unable to open with other genres of fiction. From superheroes to wizards, witches to dragons, fairies to queens, fantasy worlds are filled with memorable characters who take amazing–and often devastating–actions.

But it’s not just the characters who make these stories come alive. The settings are just as vivid, often taking on a role just as important as those of the characters. Whether the story is set in an entirely fictional world or the writer has written magical elements into life on earth, readers love getting lost in a place that is different from anything they’ve ever known.

Once you’ve looked through the following list of fiction writing prompts for fantasy stories, you may also want to check out these other resources we offer:

  • Plan out your story using our Story Planner
  • Check out this Writing Prompt Generator for both fiction and non-fiction writing prompts
  • Find more Creative Writing Prompts here

Types of Fantasy

If you’re a long-time fantasy fan, you are probably familiar with the various sub-genres that exist, but for those who are new to the worlds of mythical creatures and magical beings, here is a quick rundown of a few of the more common fantasy styles. The number of subgenres varies widely depending on who you ask, and this is not intended to be an exhaustive list, merely an overview.

The nice thing about fantasy prompts is that you can take them in any direction you want. For example, you could combine elements of a fairy tale with dark fantasy writing prompts to produce a dark twist on a formerly cheery tale. Or you can take an epic fantasy writing prompt and cross it with a medieval story prompt and create a magical world filled with castles, nights, and battles. The only thing limiting you is your imagination.

Dark or Grimdark Fantasy

  • Written in a foreboding tone
  • Frightening and disturbing themes
  • Elements of horror that evoke a feeling of dread
  • Usually set in supernatural worlds with a gloomy atmosphere

Epic or High Fantasy

  • Settings are vast (or epic)
  • Tons of characters
  • Set in new worlds
  • Massive event or quest (the fate of the entire world is usually at stake)
  • Typically centers on one main character
  • Often written as a series

Fables, Fairy Tales, and Folklore

  • Relies heavily on motifs and plots from folklore
  • New spins on timeless tales
  • Often feature morals and lessons, which may be a reversal of those taught in the original tales

Historical Fantasy

  • Set in a real historical time period, usually before the 20th century
  • Factual events blended with supernatural elements
  • May be set in the real world or in a fictional world

Low Fantasy, Contemporary Fantasy, and Urban Fantasy

  • Set in the real world or something like it
  • Magical elements occur in an otherwise-normal world
  • Supernatural characters dealing with everyday life
  • Urban fantasy takes place in a predominantly urban—not rural—setting
  • Contemporary fantasy is set in the present day (or the time in which it was written)

Magical Realism

  • Touches of magic are incorporated into the real world
  • Blurs the lines between fantasy and reality

Medieval Fantasy

  • A subgenre of historical fantasy
  • Set in the Middle Ages
  • Includes elements of medieval European culture such as castles and knights
  • Also includes fantasy elements such as dragons, sorcerers with superpowers, and mythical beings
  • Includes the subset, Arthurian fantasy, which brings in references to the knights of the round table

Paranormal Fantasy

  • Set in the modern world
  • Mythical creatures such as vampires, werewolves
  • Can overlap with urban fantasy
  • Includes the paranormal romance sub-genre, which usually has a love story between a human and a mythical being

Science Fantasy

  • Presents fantasy elements as hard science, even though the science is not real

Superhero Fantasy

  • Follows heroes with supernatural powers and the villains they oppose
  • There’s often a scientific explanation for the superpowers

Sword and Sorcery

  • Heroes with swords on big adventures
  • Character-driven, focuses on personal matters
  • Usually in a secondary world

Now that you probably have a clear idea of the type of fantasy story you’d like to write, let’s jump into the writing prompts.

50 Fantasy Writing Prompts and Plot Ideas

  • One day in the marketplace, you meet a scatterbrained magician who can’t seem to keep his thoughts straight, but then out of nowhere, he solves a marketplace crime. You try to distance yourself from him, but he convinces you to become his partner.
  • What if you had x-ray vision?
  • Write a story about a dryad (a tree nymph) who adopts a human child she finds in the woods and with whom she must work together to save her forest from deforestation.
  • Write a story about a wizard who finds a potion that brings his best friend back to life.
  • Write a story where someone has invented shoes that enable people to fly, but the shoes are extraordinarily expensive.
  • Write a story about a yeti whose village is melting.
  • Write a story about two kingdoms in a fantasy world who are at war with each other over a scarce resource (like water or fuel, or something completely unknown in our world).
  • You’re visiting some relatives when your three-year-old cousin floods the bathroom. You try to dry it up but the water level keeps rising. You and the kids jump into the bathtub just as it begins its transformation into a beautiful boat.
  • Imagine that a child discovered they could time travel using old coins–whatever year and country the coin was minted in, that’s where they can travel to. Write about their adventures.
  • Your great-great-aunt, whom you met only once when you were still too young to form memories, has died and left you her ancient typewriter. You’re planning to use it as a doorstop, but after having it for one night, you realize it types out beautiful masterpieces while you are sleeping.
  • Write about a regular child who realizes they have magical powers, which they must immediately put into use to protect a community of people who are in imminent danger.
  • What if you received a special watch as a gift and it kept talking to you?
  • Write a story about King Arthur who time travels to the present day and tries to take on the British royal family.
  • What if unicorns existed and lived on an isolated island but were now considering an attempt at world domination?
  • You open the mailbox one day and find a strange letter addressed to you. The time has come to fulfill your destiny, it reads. The world is counting on you. Come quickly, and bring your secret sketchbook.
  • Write about a priest who takes in a child abandoned on his doorstep, only to learn sometime later that the baby was not fully human.
  • Sleep and pray. Get me out of here. The door creaks open and a withered hand tosses in a gray wool blanket. “Wouldn’t want you to catch a cold.” The soft voice filters into the cell and wraps itself around me like a warm hug. And just like that, I know what I have to do.
  • You discover a book in your parents’ bedroom that describes everything you’ve ever said and done. But the book is a hundred years old, and you’re just twelve. Or so you thought.
  • What if you suddenly realized that your life story mirrored the plot of a Shakespearean play?
  • Write a story where there are two earths, 100 miles apart only one is inhabited by people and the other is inhabited by dragons.
  • You wake up to find your room mysteriously clean and a paper bag sitting on your desk. You open it up and an angry-looking brownie jumps out. “It’s about time!” he yells. “My brother locked me in there hours ago. We’ve got to find him!”
  • You find an ancient text etched into a wall in your basement. Translating it, you realize it’s an escape plan. Just as you’re muttering to yourself about how much time you’ve wasted, the door to the basement slams shut and the stairs melt away.
  • It’s all over the news. Random events are taking place. What if someone discovers that they’re my dreams coming true, literally? What will they do to me? I have to find…
  • What if your mother told you you had to go to Peru and fight a monster you’d thought was a legend?
  • What if you created a magical potion that caused everything it touched to grow exponentially?
  • Write about a girl who lives in pre-industrial times who finds a twenty-first-century smartphone that has all its modern capabilities, including those provided by WiFi, which of course, nobody in her time knows anything about.
  • Write a story about a man-eating dragon who falls in love with a human and goes on a quest to become human too.
  • Write about a team of young wizards who communicate with each other through telekinesis, and who must find a way to stop the evil villain–one of their professors–from infiltrating their thoughts and stealing secret spells for his/her own purposes.
  • What if your best friend got trapped inside a book?
  • What if you were canoeing in an inlet when a pod of whales came up underneath your boat and lifted you out of the water, at which point your boat took to the air?
  • Write about a group of people who find flying carpets and decide to race them.
  • What if you traveled back in time to ancient Egypt and discovered that their world was even more modernized than ours and included more advanced technology but that they’d destroyed all evidence of these advances in an effort to protect future generations from making the same devastating decisions that they had?
  • Jack glanced around furtively, making sure no one could see him. Then he ducked down the alley. He had taken no more than two steps when he was pulled into a nearly invisible hole in the wall. He was met with rancid breath and a hairy hand around his throat. “Where is it?” said the young man. “Where is my…?”
  • Write a story about someone who discovers a secret castle from the Middle Ages and learns that a whole other world exists inside it.
  • Write about a guitar that plays itself and accidentally makes an accountant into a popular musician.
  • What if you were babysitting a kid who went to the kitchen to get a snack and came back as a gnome?
  • What if you were a jester in a medieval castle and you had to keep the king entertained all the time?
  • You’re sitting on a bench outside the library when a dog approaches you with no leash on. He climbs up on the bench, looks you right in the eyes, and says, “I heard you have the spell for turning dogs into people. Help me, please!”
  • An enchantress creeps into a room unseen, her cloak of invisibility her only protection. She just needs to get the book and get out of there. She shutters as she hears a loud rip. Her cloak is caught on the door!
  • I walked through the market timidly, unsure of what I was looking for, but certain I would find it here. A flash of light flickered almost imperceptibly to my right, and instinctively I turned toward the stall that I’d just passed, but it was gone. In its place…
  • What if every character you wrote automatically came to life and a foreign government was after you to create spies for them?
  • You’re sitting by a pond. You lean over to touch the water and realize you have no reflection. It’s disappeared. It turns out you’ve accidentally become invisible.
  • You and your friend happen upon a mysterious underground society that is trying to bring dragons back to the world. But dragons never existed. Did they?
  • What if you discovered that certain garments could be unraveled and the threads woven into gold?
  • Your aunt shows up at your house unannounced and declares she is taking you on yet another quest. “Grab your bike, your bearded dragon, and your book of incantations. The rest of the club members are waiting.”
  • After your grandmother passes away, you learn that the baby blanket she knitted for you when you were born has secrets from the past woven into it. When it begins whispering stories to you at night, you realize there’s a family mystery you need to solve.
  • Write a story about a centuries-long war that’s stopped by a couple of rebels riding on highland cows.
  • Write a story about a teacher who can read the thoughts of their students, but can’t tell anybody their secret.
  • The pirate bound my hands and stuffed a gag into my mouth. I kicked him in the shins. “Ow!” he said, glaring at me as he pulled the rope tighter. “Now, tell us where the gold is, or I’ll…”
  • A disease is spreading through your town, but it’s not passed on in the usual ways. It is only transferred from one person to another when an infected person teaches someone something.

I hope you’ve enjoyed these fantasy writing prompts and plot ideas. I can’t wait to hear about the short stories and novels you come up with. Leave a comment below to tell us what fantasy fiction writing prompts you’re using and what you’re working on.

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The Best High Fantasy Story Ideas and Writing Prompts (Updated 2024)

high fantasy writing prompts

Looking for some high fantasy story ideas and writing prompts to spark the imagination? Read on for prompts like a barmaid who’s tricked into replacing a self-proclaimed hero on a heroic mission, to a thief teaching a flightless dragon how to fly!

Table of Contents

Elements of a High Fantasy Story

Writing prompts, picture prompts.

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What’s High Fantasy?

High fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy that takes place in a fictional universe with its own set of physical laws and norms, and is distinguished by the epic scale of its setting or the epic grandeur of its characters, themes, or plot.

This term is a contrast with low fantasy , a subgenre of fantasy in which supernatural or magical happenings interfere with an otherwise ordinary world. Works considered as low fantasy are Harry Potter and Alice in Wonderland . The narratives in these stories are set in real world settings , with elements of magic and fantasy weaved into them.

While for high fantasy, the works of author J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings in particular, are recognized as the golden standard or archetypical works of this genre.

Before we dive into some high fantasy writing prompts, let’s dissect the genre a little bit more to get a good grasp of the genre.

Evidently, there are many elements that distinguishes this genre from dark fantasy genre, or the sword and sorcery genre. Here are some typical elements in high fantasy works.

1. Viewpoint : the story is often told from the viewpoint of one main hero.

2. Common themes : the mysterious nature or heritage of the main hero, or an issue that might end the world.

3. World-building : extensive and in-depth, think of the universe that G. R. R. Martin conjured up in his A Song of Ice and Fire series, or Tolkien with his The Lord of the Rings series.

4. Message : good prevailing over evil, which is the main difference between high fantasy and many other subgenre of fantasy, including the dark fantasy as well as the sword and sorcery genre.

Without further ado, below are some prompts to spark your imagination!

Please note that the genders in the following entries are just placeholders and do not mean to enforce any hurtful stereotypes nor offend anyone.

1. Two families, two kingdoms, two different magical leanings. One is the conqueror , the other is the conquered . The male heir of the conquered one was smuggled into the court of the conqueror, in order to save his life (or alternatively, as a part of a revenge plan), and ends up befriending the female heir of the conqueror. The result is two star-crossed lovers with the blood of the other’s ancestors staining their hands. (Originally appeared in my post  Romance Story Ideas with a Unique Twist .)

2. A disgraced centaur warrior finally gains enough courage to go back to his people and face punishment after the friendship of a lowly elf thief shows him what loyalty is really all about.

3. When a strange sound coming out of a forest begins causing casualties to all who approach, people find out the hard way that it’s the Deity of Earth, who has awakens after thousand years of slumber, and they need sustenance. Will the fairies, the dwarves and the orcs be able to set aside their differences and band together against this looming threat then? (Originally appeared in my post 22 Enchanted Forest Story Ideas .)

4. In a world where dragons are salty creatures who have wings but couldn’t fly, a thief is caught stealing and is being fed to one of such dragons. Only instead of becoming the dragon’s food, the thief strikes a friendship with him, teaches him how to fly and together, they go back to the rest of the dragon’s kin to teach them the art of spreading their wings and fly.

5. A sorcerer quickly rises to power by enchanting every mirror in the realm to behave as he wishes: as his spying tool, as a cloning device, as a portal to travel from one place to another, and more. The only person who can potentially stop his evil agenda is his apprentice, and he’s going to have to use his master’s mirror-enchanting specialty against himself. However, the problem is, his skills are not perfect yet…

6. In a world where shadow magic has been banished, a secret guild of shadow-wielders emerges from the shadows to reclaim their heritage. With darkness rising, they venture on a quest to awaken dormant powers, find lost artifacts, and challenge the oppressive ruling order. Along the way, they must confront their own inner demons and navigate the fine line between light and darkness.

7. A devastating storm of magical origins engulfs the realm, leaving destruction and chaos in its wake. As the storm grows stronger and threatens to consume everything, a group of chosen individuals with innate magical abilities embarks on a perilous journey to uncover the truth behind the storm’s origins and find a way to restore balance before the world is torn apart.

8. Once every century, during a rare celestial alignment, a grand masquerade ball takes place where every supernatural creature can freely reveal their true forms without fear of persecution. The story follows a down-on-his luck swordsman who uncover a dark conspiracy attempting to hijack the masquerade to shatter the delicate balance between the human and supernatural worlds.

9. Drought has nearly brought the entire world to an end. The only lush corner left in the realm is the territory of the nymphs. However, they are reluctant to open their doors for fear of destroying their own people.

10. Create your own high fantasy race , such as half-dragon, half-human creatures. Or creatures with human upper bodies and tarantula-like legs. Half- komodo , half tiger? Also, creatures which defy common tropes. For example, elves who drink blood? Vegetarian orcs? A humanoid race that consists inexplicably made up of females?

11. In a universe where talking animals live alongside humans, the ravens, one of the smartest animals, holds an important seat of power. When the King of the Raven Kingdom turns up dead, a human King and the heir of the Raven Kingdom must team up to find the culprit and restore peace on the realm.

12. It’s a world where a giant raven threatens to end the world by drawing a symbol in the sky that prevents the sun from rising. A peasant human, a teenage dragon and a misunderstood troll decide to band together and make a name for themselves by slaying the raven.

Here are some picture-based high fantasy story prompts, because, a picture speaks a thousand words! Below are some image prompts as well as some prompt ideas to accompany each.

fantasy narrative writing prompts

(Please click on the image for more information.)

1. Write about an unlikely alliance between two fantasy races. The nymphs and the dragons? The goblins and the unicorns?

2. The dragons are an advanced and wise race in the realm, albeit ancient, but their bloodline is slowly fading due to genetical infertility. This is a story about the dragons trying to find a race worthy to succeed their legacy, onto whom they could pass their centuries of wisdom.

fantasy narrative writing prompts

1. The fairy race consists of humanoid creatures who live up in the sky , making their homes among the clouds and gracing the soil with rain, until one high ranking fairy turns dark from losing her wings and withholds rain from touching the earth. (A similar plot originally appeared in my post 22 Enchanted Forest Story Ideas .

2. A humble barmaid is tricked into replacing a self-proclaimed hero on a journey to retrieve a magical fruit to heal the cursed land. But how does a Fire demon prince, a witch and a stable boy end up tangled into the chaos as well?

For more story ideas and writing prompts, please browse our Story Ideas & Writing Prompts category. Have any question or feedback? Feel free to contact me here . Until next time!

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Home » Blog » 30+ Best Fantasy Writing Prompts in 2024

30+ Best Fantasy Writing Prompts in 2024

fantasy narrative writing prompts

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Fantasy writing prompts can be a very special kind of exciting. Writing fantasy requires a deep level of imagination and creativity as you are literally creating your own world. All the physical laws and restrictions of earth no longer apply when you write fantasy.

Anything is possible – any place, any action, any species. These things can make the dreaded arrival of writer’s block even more frustrating. Regardless of genre, every writer goes through it sometimes. The days or even weeks where you just can’t seem to nail down a single creative word. It is times like these when some great fantasy writing prompts can come in handy. Whether you are trying to come up with a whole new novel idea, or want something interesting to add to your existing story, these fantasy writing prompts will help you move forward. You don’t have to be J.K. Rowling to get started.

The great thing about fantasy is that it can apply to many genres. You can have a supernatural romance, a horror tale of fantastical proportions, or even a crime drama featuring some made-up monsters. There are fantasy writing prompts for many genre crossovers. My favorite tool for writing fantasy is Squibler as it includes many features to help you tell your story visually.

Writing prompts can come in many forms:

  • A vague and general idea
  • A random thought
  • A line of dialogue
  • A new type of world
  • A new form of government (usually oppressive in some way)
  • And many more

If you’re looking for some simpler creative writing prompts beyond what you see here, try the writing prompt generator . This offers you some quick and simple ideas that are meant to spark some ideas without limiting you.

Basic Fantasy Writing Prompts

These prompts are designed to give your brain a jump start on a whole new story idea. These prompts could be the base of a novel or short story.

Each year, all the wizards, sorcerers, and other magical beings come together for a tournament. They gamble their powers and magical tools.

Bottle Them Up

Your protagonist lives in a world where you can buy and sell bottled emotions. It is a government regulated industry, but illegal dealers and black markets run rampant. Some emotions are worth more than others.

The Communicator

Write about a character who was mute until he discovers that he can talk to animals, and they talk back. He discovers the animal kingdom has a master plan, and he must decide whether to join them or stop them.

Tell the Truth

Anything can become true if enough people believe it strongly and deeply enough. The antagonist becomes aware of this and begins to manipulate the population to create the world he wants.

There is a mysterious creature living deep in the forest of a small country somewhere in the world. It has terrorized locals for years. A bite from this creature may kill you, or it may give you powers. The city closest to the creature’s residence is full of people with magical abilities, but the population is small as many are killed.

Word begins to spread, and the rest of the world starts to become aware of the creature. Some travel from far away and gamble their lives in hopes of obtaining magic.

The Evil Twin

Your main character finds out they are being hunted by who they think is their alternate universe evil twin. They soon discover that they themselves are actually the evil one.

Trusting the Humans

Magical beings are the ruling class on earth. Governments are run by them. Those without powers are considered useless, second class citizens and generally live in poverty. There is a single source of power for the entire realm (perhaps an object, or a place). One day, the power source is taken over by dark forces. They cast a spell on the source that uses the power of anyone who tries to touch it against them.

The magical beings must now rely on the “non-magic” folk they have ridiculed for generations. They are the only ones who can save the world from this darkness.

Mystical Bounty Hunter

A bounty hunter from an alternate universe appears in the yard of a maximum-security prison. He has come to break out one of the most dangerous, lethal prisoners in the world, and bring them back to his universe.  

The Gentle Giant

Choose a mythical creature that is generally thought to be large, terrifying, and evil. Make them into a kind, loving, and sympathetic character. They have to prove the myths, legends, and stereotypes wrong to avoid being hunted and killed by humans.

Unlikely Partners

Your main character is left in the forest to die, as the annual sacrifice to the god of the forest. The god shows up, but this year he is not interested in the death of his sacrifice. He is looking for a new servant and/or sidekick.

Supernatural Dealings

A new shop opens that allows humans to rent mystical and magical things: superpowers, magical abilities/items, etc. Monetary payment is not accepted. You must pay much more abstract prices – memories, emotions, or even years of your life for the most expensive items.

Romantic Fantasy Writing Prompts

These prompts are ideas where fantasy and romance have been intertwined. Love is universal, no matter what species you are! These are also good for a novel with the right ideas, or a short fantasy story if you prefer. 

Star-Crossed

Humans are forbidden to fraternize and mingle with the enchanted, and vice versa. They are groomed from birth to hate each other. An unlikely love story develops as two people from each faction begin an illegal relationship.

This is not a brand new concept – but there are a lot of ways you can spin this typical trope of forbidden love. Don’t be afraid to make your own version of a classic!

The group of sirens have been doing their jobs diligently for centuries. They have honed their craft, and kill quickly, viciously, and without mercy. They leave no fisherman or sailor stupid enough to cross their waters alive.

For the first time in 600 years, one of the sirens doesn’t want to kill a particular young sailor. Thinking quickly, she convinces the group they need a slave, and so she keeps him alive but captive, all while falling more and more in love with him every day.

Sci-Fi/Fantasy Writing Prompts

Science fiction and fantasy work well together as they share a lot of basic elements. A fantasy novel can utilize mermaids for example, but so can science fiction. Mermaids are futuristic, fairy-tale material that works in many areas of the fantasy genre. 

Take these fantasy fiction plot ideas, add some future technology and you have yourself a crossover. 

Robots and Wizards

Artificial intelligence is at an all-time high. Robots are running rampant and becoming more powerful all the time. Humans begin to think they have made a mistake, and then the robots start to team up with the wizards and sorcerers. Is there any hope for the human race at all?

Magic Machines

The magical beings of the world begin to invent their own machinery. They design robots with magical powers of their own.

Zombie Intelligence

Humans have been fighting the zombie epidemic for many decades, with no success and no progress. One day, a telepathic agent comes onto the scene and makes a horrifying discovery. The zombies have begun to think. They are developing intelligence, communicating, and becoming their own species.

Day of the Undead

A giant alien spaceship has discovered earth. They have stopped their ship right in front of the sun, casting parts of the world into total and perpetual darkness. The vampires that have been in hiding take advantage of their newfound freedom.

Alien Vampires

NASA has spent years creating the perfect plan to inhabit Mars. They have every detail worked out and it is time to put the plan into action. They have recruited hundreds of brave astronauts who have dedicated their lives to creating livable colonies on Mars.

Two vampires have been doing their own planning for just as many years. They have infiltrated the team. They have successfully made their way onto the spaceship bound for Mars.

Fire Fighters

Firefighters are the only ones who know the real truth about house fires. They are started by evil fire elementals. In order to put out the fire, the elementals responsible must be killed. The firefighters are sworn to secrecy, the public can never know.

Horror/Fantasy Writing Prompts

Horror and fantasy can often go quite well together. Horror itself can be almost anything – as long as it is sufficiently terrifying! Mixing this genre of dread, terror, doom, gloom, and darkness with magic and fantasy can make for a wonderfully unique and enriching story.

Horror can work well with urban fantasy as it’s a good setting for horrific things to happen. Paranormal elements will also mix well with these fantasy fiction writing prompts. Perhaps a ghost is the only person with the answers your protagonist needs!  Use these fantasy writing prompts to kick-start your next horror project.

Heads Will Roll

Be-heading is a common form of execution. Leaders have become corrupt and are using their power to simply get rid of people they don’t like or are threatened by. A wizard has caught wind of this and puts a spell on the head executioner’s ax.

An innocent man is executed, and the executioner smiles to himself as he wipes the blood off his ax. Suddenly, the newly detached head begins to speak. It is angry.

A Big Mistake

A quiet old man lives in a run-down cottage at the edge of town. He is known for keeping to himself and hating children. Strange things start happening in the city, and the townspeople blame the old man, accusing him of being an evil sorcerer.

A brave young warrior finally kills the man, and the town celebrates. Their cheers turn into screams as a demon exits the old man’s body, calls forward hundreds more, and they start inhabiting each and every person there.

A mysterious box appears in town one day. No one knows what is in the box – they can’t get it open. All they know is that it’s only been around for two days, and since it’s arrival half the town has died.

Predictions

In the moment before a person dies, they utter a sentence that predicts a piece of the future. Sometimes they are small and insignificant, sometimes they are very important. Wars have been prevented, natural disasters have been minimized, and lives have been saved by these predictions.

Suddenly, every single person who dies around the world starts saying the exact same thing.

Fantasy Writing Prompts for Encouragement

These prompts are designed to help you put the fire back into a novel that may have gone stale. Don’t know where to go next? Start writing and work these ideas or things into your story.

Magical Items

Matching gems : Two pieces of jewelry with matching gemstones. When worn by two different people, they can communicate telepathically no matter how far apart they are.

Sword of Innocence : When wielded by someone with a pure heart and good intentions, it turns into an invincible weapon against those who are truly evil.

Enchanted Chalk : A piece of chalk that can create working doors. Draw two doors at point A and B, and travel between them instantly no matter their actual, physical distance. Draw a single door on a flat, solid surface, and pass through to the other side. You can have as many active doors as you want, but make sure you protect them. Once the door is smeared or washed away, it becomes useless. All doors disappear when the chalk runs out.

Magical Abilities

fantasy-writing-prompts

Blood Magic : If you posses blood magic, your magic resides within your blood. To use it, you must draw blood. The amount of blood drawn will determine the strength and duration of the spell or ability.

Magic Tattoos : Magical abilities are gained through tattoos. This gives a lot of control, power, and reverence to tattoo artists. They are among the wealthiest on the earth. Size, location, and design are all relevant to the ability being gained. Tattoos around the eyes will grant magical sight, tattoos on the head can grant telepathy, tattoos on the arms can grant strength, etc.

  • Keep your powers a secret by getting tattoos that are hidden.
  • Curses can be laid by tattooing someone against their will
  • Tattoos gradually fade as power is used

Finders : A finder has the ability to locate lost items. They can simply touch a person, and they will be able to mentally locate the lost item in question. A seemingly simple thing, but extremely sought after. Finders are valuable, and therefore quite rich and powerful.

Dive Into Your Own Fantasy World

Hopefully, this list of fantasy writing prompts has given you some ideas that will either get you started or keep you going. Even the most simple and basic ideas can be turned into something incredible with the use of a creative imagination. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box and put your own personal twist on some of these ideas. Change them as much as you want and make them your own!

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20 Fantasy Writing Prompts: Fuel Your Story/Plot Ideas

Helly Douglas

Helly Douglas

230+ Fantasy Writing Prompts, open book surrounded by shimmery lights

Writing fantasy is freeing and exhilarating. You get to break the rules of normal life, create new worlds, or add strangeness to everyday experiences.

But rather than giving you hundreds of ideas, that much freedom can have the opposite effect on your creativity. There’s just too much to choose from.

Creative writing prompts are a useful way to get that initial spark and move past the blank page feeling. They work regardless of the type of writing you produce and can give you the push you need to get pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard!)

Writing prompts are particularly useful for free writing activities. Use a prompt and just start writing whatever comes into your head. Avoid self-editing as you write, just let the ideas flow. In amongst lots of rubbish, there’s bound to be a few gems you can take further.

We’ve got 20 great prompts for you, organized into categories. Each one offers many possibilities to take your story in different directions. Then keep reading to find out a little trick that will give you over 200 more exciting ideas.

Prompts 1–4: Scenarios

Prompts 5–8: historical events, prompts 9–12: interesting characters, prompts 13–16: special objects, prompts 17–20: maps/world-building, bonus: adding elements together, final thoughts.

Familiar situations are a great way to find inspiration. Take a typical scenario and twist it. Make something wrong with the familiar set up.

For example, a man walks into a bar and… does anything except have a drink. Everyone knows if you’re in a haunted house, you’ll end up in the cellar, so try twisting the old clichés to create the unexpected.

1. An Important Meeting

The town leaders are suddenly and unexpectedly called together to discuss important news. What is the news and how will they react to it? What are the implications for the town?

2. Lost in the Woods

Take this tired cliché and turn it on its head. What’s in the woods to be found? What will happen to the person who finds it? Will they want to make it home, or stay in the woods forever?

3. Overhearing a Secret

As Benjamin Franklin said, “Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead.” Your protagonist overhears something they shouldn’t. What do they hear? What are the ramifications if they tell?

4. A Journey

Your character leaves suddenly on a journey. Where are they going? What do they take? Who wins if they never arrive?

Plenty of fantasy writing takes inspiration from actual events in history. You don’t need the knowledge of a historical expert, simply use key moments from history to inspire you to create something new.

5. Civil War Breaks Out

Who are the major players? What do they have to win and lose from this war? What could drive them to turn against their own people?

6. Royal Abdication

Take inspiration from the real events of Edward VIII’s abdication in the United Kingdom. Why would someone choose to give up their throne? For love? Or what about something far darker?

7. Empire Building

What happens when one land isn’t enough for a ruler? Where do they go to expand their empire? What happens to those in power, and those they enslave?

8. Space Exploration

Get inspired by the USSR/US space race. Two countries will stop at nothing to be first to travel to a new location. What will they gain from being the victor? How can they gain advantage?

An interesting protagonist makes an ideal starting point for fantasy writing. Think about what makes them different from everyday people. How do they behave? What do other people think of them?

9. The Opposite to Your Expectations

Take a traditional view of a character type and invert it. An honest thief, a gentle ogre, an educated soldier. How do they fit in (or not) in a world where everyone expects them to play to type? Why can’t they find peace?

10. The Strange Child

Children make great protagonists. After all, there’s nothing more innocent than a child, is there? What can this child do that others don’t? What makes them wise beyond their years, and why do people fear them?

11. The New Species

A robot that moves beyond AI into humanity. A human that’s evolved into something different. New life discovered on another planet. How is this character different from everyday people? What will they teach us, and will we be willing to listen?

12. Supernatural Characters

Witches, ghosts, and zombies blur the worlds of fantasy and horror. Do they want to fit in or are they born to stand out? What risk do they pose to the surrounding people? What lengths might they go to just to be normal?

High fantasy loves using special items, think of cursed wands, magical objects, and spell books. Special items are a useful starting point for a new adventure.

13. An Inheritance Piece

Passed down the generations from parent to child and opened on their birthday. A hidden secret or proud moment they’ve anticipated all their life? When it’s seen, everything changes. How will your character feel when they receive it?

14. A Magic Weapon

More than just your usual sword or spear, this weapon has secret powers that makes its owner invincible. It can start a war—or end it. How will your character use it, and what are their intentions?

15. A Spell Book

It’s not just anyone who can recite a spell and achieve success. So, what happens when the wrong person finds it? Are they in control of the book, or is the book controlling them?

16. A Camera

A camera captures more than just a picture. When your protagonist looks at the image, what do they see? Is there any way to prevent the picture coming true?

StrangeFantasyWorld

Maps offer great inspiration for a new piece of fantasy. Think about the physical geography of the terrain, human settlements, and man-made changes. Where is there tension? What problems arise?

17. Create a New World

Have you seen the amazing world-builder websites and apps you can use to create a new world? They offer great inspiration for fantasy writing.

Here are four sites you’ll love:

  • World Anvil
  • Wonderdraft

18. Fictional Map Books

Rather than creating a new map yourself, take inspiration from famous worlds in literature and newly imagined places.

Here are four of our favorites:

  • Archipelago: An Atlas of Imagined Islands
  • The Writer’s Map: An Atlas of Imaginary Lands
  • Literary Wonderlands: A Journey Through the Greatest Fictional Worlds Ever Created
  • Booked: A Traveler’s Guide to Literary Locations Around the World

19. Google Earth and Google Maps

You don’t need new worlds to get inspired. Check out the many mysterious, fantastical, and downright strange locations around our world using the power of Google Maps and Google Earth.

  • Amazing Finds
  • Interesting places
  • Strange Sights

20. Inspiring Landscapes

PortalInRockWithStarrySky

Check out this stunning picture of a mysterious stone archway. Where does it lead to? Is it natural or man-made? When your character walks through it, they’ll change forever.

If those 20 prompts weren’t enough, there’s a simple way to generate lots of new ideas for fantasy writing. Inspiration strikes when unexpected connections are made, so list different possibilities in categories and match them together.

For this example, I went with six characters, six objects, and six situations. Why choose six? That way a simple roll of the dice adds random luck into the mix.

216 Combinations

That’s right. Just thinking of three sets of six choices gives you over 200 great prompts for fantasy writing. Choose your favorite combination, or risk your luck, and let three rolls of a dice decide.

An example grid:

DiceRollFantasyPrompts

Using a dice stops us from taking the obvious route and using clichés. It forces you to take a risk. For example, rolling a 3, 2, and 5 gives you a witch, wand, and revenge. Roll 4, 3, and 1 and you’ve got a child, ancient tree, and a race against time.

Sometimes you’ll hit a bad combination, but don’t immediately dismiss a strange mix. After all, fantasy writing should push us out of our comfort zone.

Fantasy writing lets us travel far beyond everyday experiences, but it’s hard to just think of wonderful new ideas on demand.

If you’re looking for daily inspiration, want to join other writers like yourself, or fancy entering a contest, check out Reedsy Prompts for daily prompts and a weekly writing competition using them.

Prompts are a great source of ideas when you’re trying to think of something new. But don’t feel trapped. Your writing may move far away from the original idea you’ve chosen. Prompts should inspire, not be a stranglehold on your creativity.

Do you want to know how to build a world your readers won't forget? Download this free book now:

World-Building 101: How to construct an unforgettable world for your fantasy or sci-Fi story!

World-Building 101: How to Construct an Unforgettable World for your Fantasy or Sci-Fi Story!

This guide is for all the writers out there who want to construct an unforgettable world that your readers can't help but get lost in, learn how to invent species, gods, monsters and more in our immersive guide..

fantasy narrative writing prompts

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Helly Douglas is a UK writer and teacher, specialising in education, children, and parenting. She loves making the complex seem simple through blogs, articles, and curriculum content. You can check out her work at hellydouglas.com or connect on Twitter @hellydouglas. When she’s not writing, you will find her in a classroom, being a mum or battling against the wilderness of her garden—the garden is winning!

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125 Fantasy Writing Prompts to Start Your Next Fantasy Novel

Writing tips | writing, last updated on: july 18, 2023.

Warlocks, werewolves, and wendigos . . . oh my! Fantasy novels are full of magical creatures and imaginative worlds. If you’re drawn to novels in the vein of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe or even Game of Thrones, then you likely have a hankering for the fantasy genre. You’re not alone! Quite popular, fantasy novels are known for their imagination and characterized by intense worldbuilding and supernatural beings. Here, we’ll break down the fantasy genre, take a closer look at its subgenres, and share a list of 125 fantasy prompts to inspire your own writing.

What is fantasy fiction?

Fantasy novels are characterized by the inclusion of magic or supernatural elements. The characters in fantasy novels are often drawn in part or in whole from mythology or folklore. While some fantasy is set in our own world with a magical element, other fantasy novels feature entirely made up worlds and creatures. Fantasy novels are purely speculative, and are often not tied to reality or science.

An image showing the book covers for several books in the fantasy fiction book genre.

Fantasy comes in many forms and includes many different and varied subgenres, including magical realism, dark fantasy, heroic fantasy, historical fantasy, low fantasy, mythic fantasy, high fantasy, and urban fantasy.

An image showing the subgenres of fantasy fiction.

What makes a good fantasy novel?

The best fantasy novels are typically set in highly detailed and well crafted original worlds. Whether these worlds are a variation on our own or bear no resemblance whatsoever to the world we know, they tend to have two things in common: an element of magic and incredibly high stakes. At their core, more fantasy features a hero’s journey, with a richly woven protagonist and a powerful cast of supporting characters.

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Most common fantasy tropes

Fantasy novels tend to follow standard formulas, albeit enhanced by the new world in which they exist. Some of those tropes include:

  • A dark lord
  • A hero’s quest
  • A magical school
  • New races or creatures
  • Familiar mythical figures such as vampires, werewolves, or fairies
  • A mentor figure
  • Trolls or ogres
  • Good versus evil
  • A “chosen one”
  • A tavern or local meeting place where information is exchanged
  • Portals that open from our world into the fantasy world
  • A magical world or society existing alongside our world, but of which “non-magic” folk are unaware
  • Death of a loved one
  • The creation of a new language
  • The acquisition of superpowers

Fantasy Story Writing Prompts

Not quite sure where to start with your new world? Take a look at the 125 writing prompts below to inspire your next fantasy story.

  • Write a story about a character who comes into magic powers on their 16th birthday
  • Write a story about a Greek God returned to Earth as a mortal for a single day
  • Write about a main character who can speak to animals
  • Write a story about an angel who falls in love with a mortal
  • Write about a world where dragons exist
  • Write a story about hunting Dracula
  • Write about a school for the magically-gifted
  • A story about a league of immortals who’ve been hiding on Earth
  • Write a story about a character who awakens a mummy
  • Write about a book that comes to life when read aloud
  • Write about two warring magic kingdoms and the girl who unites them
  • Write a story about a group of friends who open a portal to another dimension
  • Write a story about a teen who travels back in time to stop a medieval magician
  • A story about a group of teens who are involved in an accident and then each acquire strange powers
  • A story about a cop who seeks the help of an immortal to find a dangerous criminal
  • A story about hunting the headless horseman
  • Write a modern-retelling of Hercules
  • A story about teens who investigate a local legend and get more than they bargained for
  • Write a story about a morally-conflicted teen shape-shifter who helps an army win battles
  • Write a story about two opposing wizards in love with the same girl
  • Write a story about a cave of wonders
  • Write a retelling where all of Edgar Allan Poe's stories come to life
  • Write about a magic spell book that once belonged to Snow White's stepmother
  • A story about a detective who solves crimes because he can talk to victims’ ghosts
  • A story about a man who falls from the sky
  • Write a story about a world where people are born with three lives
  • Write a scary story about a group of teens who seek shelter in a haunted house after their car breaks down
  • A story about a town where everyone is afraid to venture into a dark, enchanted forest
  • Write a story about a magic lamp

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  • Write a story about a prince who travels through time to modern-day NYC and the villain who follows him
  • A story about a secret celestial war between good and evil waging in modern-day NYC
  • A story about an immortal who doesn’t remember his past or his enemies
  • Write about a group of pirates who crew a ghost ship
  • Write a story about a group of people whose appearance changes under the light of a full moon
  • A story about a secret society of immortals who are sworn to protect humans from monsters
  • A story about a traveling circus who are really witches and wizards
  • Write a story about a boy whose horse can fly
  • A story about a group of teens who investigate a strange new family that just moved to town
  • A story about a group of teens who investigate a string of mysterious disappearances after one of their friends goes missing
  • A story about a mysterious bridge that leads to heaven
  • A story about a human who befriends a family of witches
  • Write a retelling of Beauty and the Beast
  • Write a story about a mysterious, now desolate, castle that was once the home of a great ruler
  • Write a story about how to catch Pegasus
  • Write a story about a group of teens in search of a mysterious land where unicorns live
  • Write about the origin story of the Wicked Witch of Oz
  • Write a story that offers a new spin on the origins of Dracula
  • Write a story about a library or museum that comes to life at night
  • Write a story about a girl who gets a second-chance at life after a tragic death
  • Write about teens who awaken the mythological Titans
  • A story about a star that falls from the sky and transforms into a girl
  • A story about a girl who can transform into a raven and fly
  • A story about a pirate who’s saved by a mermaid
  • A story about vampires who fought for the confederacy in the Civil War
  • Write a story about a small-town detective who investigates strange deaths
  • Write a Cinderella retelling where she makes her own magic and doesn’t need a fairy godmother
  • A scary story about a headless rider looking for his head
  • Write a story about a strange curse that’s bound by the full moon
  • Write a humorous story about a family that buys a haunted house
  • A funny story about a family whose long-lost relative is a vampire that just awakened in modern times after years of sleeping
  • A story about an immortal girl whose past lives comes rushing back as she discovers her true identity
  • Write a modern retelling of Alice In Wonderland
  • A story about a boy who discovers his parents were part of a secret society of thieves
  • Write a story about the crew of a lost trading ship that comes back to life and seeks revenge on the nearby town
  • Write a story about the origins of Snow White’s fortune-telling Mirror
  • A story about a teen who inherits a book that is a portal to another world
  • A story about a teen who must stop an evil wizard
  • A story about a boy who can see ghosts
  • A story about a dystopian world where a group of teens steal from the rich to feed the poor
  • A story about the fountain of youth
  • A story about a teen who meets a family of immortals that return to her small town every 150 years
  • Write a story that’s a modern retelling of Aladdin
  • Write a story about a teen who time travels and becomes best friends with a young King Arthur
  • A story about a group of teens who discover a magic door in an abandoned house
  • Write about a crew of sailors on the hunt for treasure, but encounter a sea beast
  • Write a story about three warring kingdoms all searching for a magic sword
  • Write a story about a kid who writes letters to God and receives a response

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  • Write a modern retelling about the sword of Excalibur
  • Write a story about an ancient Egyptian text that resurrects a royal curse
  • A story about a small coastal town with an urban legend about a sea witch that returns every 100 years for revenge
  • Write a story about a phantom knight that protects the innocent
  • Write a funny story about a main character with a good and bad angel guiding him/her through life
  • Write a story about a woman who travels abroad and is met by a man who claims he knew her 100 years ago
  • Write about an unlikely teen who’s inducted into a secret society that fights demons
  • Write a funny story about a group of teens that accidentally bewitch all the Halloween decorations to life
  • Write about a traveling magician that grants a wish with secret consequences
  • Write about a magic circus that’s lead by an immortal with a tragic history
  • A story about a group of teens whose disbelief in an urban legend backfires and they start disappearing one-by-one
  • A story about a wife who’s haunted by a ghost—and her husband is a suspect in the crime
  • A story about a hunt for a magic chalice that gives powers to all who drink from it
  • A spooky story about a graveyard that brings people back to life
  • Write about the hunt for a stone that legend says will end a werewolf curse
  • Write a story about the hunt for a cloaked figure who is after humans with special powers
  • Write a story about a woman who’s saved by an immortal
  • Write a story about a world where every human is born with three wishes
  • A story about a parallel world in NYC where angels fight evil, but humans can’t see it happening before their eyes
  • A story about an immortal who hires a novelist to write his story
  • A story about a teen who discovers his name etched in a secret book with other famous people throughout history
  • A story about a secret book that the President has with a list of all the supernatural events and people living in the world
  • Write a story about a teen who keeps reliving the day they died
  • A story about the rise and fall of a villainous king who uses black magic to rule over his kingdom
  • Write a story about a group of teens who discover a mysterious dragon egg
  • Write an origin story about Alice in Wonderland’s mean Queen of Hearts
  • Write a story about a woman who signs an immortal contract to save the man she loves, but she can never be with him
  • Write a story about a warrior who signs a medieval contract that grants him supernatural powers—catch is, he has 3 days to save his kingdom
  • Write a story about a group of teens who practice magic in order to survive on the streets

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  • Write a retelling of Sherlock Holmes, but with monsters
  • Write a story about a legendary white horse that only appears to people who are pure in heart
  • Write a funny story about an undercover pet that’s assigned to protect a human
  • Write a story about a woman who learns she’s a witch and is the key to stopping a centuries-long war
  • A funny story about a woman who learns her boyfriend is actually an immortal prince in hiding
  • Write a historical retelling about the lost Anastasia Romanov and how she was saved by magic
  • A story about the son of a god who’s cast down to Earth in order to hide from his evil uncle
  • A story about a man born with a map tattooed on his body—a new clue to the puzzle appears every year on his birthday
  • Write a story about a magic carousel in the middle of Central Park
  • Write a story about a town plagued with strange disappearances
  • Write a story about a group of teens who are searching for the last ancient magician on Earth
  • Write an origin story about the daughter of vampire hunter, Van Helsing
  • A story about a sailor swallowed by the sea, but returns to rule over the ocean and the creatures who live in it
  • A story about an academy for the children of famous witches and wizards
  • A story where children’s fairy tales come to life
  • Write a story about a group of teens who discover an invisibility cloak

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71+ Fantasy Plot Ideas – Inspiring Your Creative Writing Journey

By: Author Paul Jenkins

Posted on Published: August 29, 2022  - Last updated: November 6, 2023

Categories Writing , Creativity , Filmmaking , Inspiration , Storytelling

Diving into the world of fantasy writing can be an exhilarating adventure, especially when you have a treasure trove of story ideas at your fingertips. To give your creativity a boost, we’ve compiled a list of 71 fantastical story ideas that will have your imagination soaring. Whether you’re working on a novel, screenplay, or adding depth to your Dungeons and Dragons campaign, these prompts are sure to spark your inspiration. So, why wait any longer? Embark on your brainstorming journey now!

With these unique and captivating fantasy story ideas, you’ll be able to weave exciting narratives that enthrall your readers. The key to success lies in understanding the core elements of a typical fantasy story, creating engaging characters, and building a vivid world that transports your audience to another realm. Fantasy’s popularity stems from its ability to transport us beyond reality and into a realm of endless possibilities. So, let your creativity run wild and embrace the magic of fantasy storytelling.

Key Takeaways

  • Inspire your fantasy writing with 71 creative story ideas
  • Create captivating narratives by understanding the core elements of fantasy stories
  • Develop engaging characters and vivid worlds to transport readers to other realms

71 Fantasy Plot Ideas

When writing a fantasy story, the possibilities are endless, and your imagination can run wild. Whether it’s a group of adventurers on a quest or a young girl discovering her magical powers, the sky’s the limit. Here are 71 story ideas to ignite your creativity:

  • A young girl discovers that she has magical powers and must use them to stop a dark wizard from conquering the kingdom.
  • A group of friends finds themselves transported to a world of magic and adventure, where they must save the kingdom from destruction.
  • A group of rebels fights against an evil empire that has enslaved their people.
  • A young boy must find the courage to save his family from a dragon that has been terrorizing their village.
  • A group of adventurers travels to a remote island searching for treasure, only to find themselves fighting for their lives against monstrous creatures.
  • An epic battle between good and evil occurs in a world of floating castles and magical creatures.
  • A princess must journey to a faraway land to rescue her kidnapped brother from a tyrannical sorcerer.
  • A group of mercenaries is hired to protect a kingdom from an impending invasion by an army of monsters.
  • A wizard must embark on a quest to find three magical objects that have been stolen from the kingdom’s archives.
  • A small village is threatened by an evil force sucking the life out of the land, leaving it barren and desolate.
  • A young girl discovers that she has the power to heal others with her touch.
  • A group of friends finds a mysterious box that grants them magical powers.
  • A kingdom is threatened by a powerful dark wizard who can control the people’s minds.
  • A group of friends stumbles upon a hidden world full of magical creatures and monsters.
  • A young man discovers that he is the descendant of a powerful dragon slayer.
  • A group of kids must stop an evil sorcerer from taking over their town.
  • A girl discovers she is a fairy princess kidnapped by humans years ago.
  • A group of friends discovers a secret passage that leads to a lost city filled with treasure and adventure.
  • A boy must stop an evil warlock from taking over his kingdom and enslaving the people.
  • A group of kids finds a magical ring that turns them into superheroes
  • A young farm girl discovers that she has the power to heal others with her touch.
  • A group of adventurers stumbles upon a lost city made entirely of gold.
  • A wizard creates a potion that turns everyone in the kingdom into animals.
  • A princess is forced to marry a dragon to save her kingdom.
  • A group of children finds a secret passage that leads to a magical world hidden inside the Earth.
  • A young girl discovers that she is a fairy and must protect the magical creatures of her world from humans who want to destroy them.
  • An evil sorcerer steals the magic from all the sorcerers in the kingdom, leaving them powerless.
  • A group of friends discovers that they are magical creatures who have been transformed into humans by a curse.
  • A group of people is transported to a world where they must compete in deadly gladiator games to survive.
  • A young girl is chosen to be the new queen of her kingdom, but she must first pass a series of tests to prove her worthiness.
  • A young farmer discovers that he has the power to heal others with his touch.
  • A group of adventurers finds a magical sword that grants them superhuman strength.
  • A wizard travels back in time and meets her younger self.
  • A young girl discovers that she can transform into a dragon.
  • A group of thieves stumbles upon a treasure map leading to a hidden city of gold.
  • A princess is kidnapped and held for ransom by a band of pirates.
  • A group of mercenaries is hired to protect a shipment of magical crystals.
  • A kingdom is beset by a curse that turns its citizens into animals.
  • A wizard must enter into a deadly Competition to win back his freedom.
  • A group of kids finds themselves trapped in a haunted amusement park overnight.
  • A young girl discovers she has the power to heal others with her touch.
  • A group of friends must journey into a dark forest to rescue their kidnapped loved ones.
  • A wizard must find a way to stop an evil sorcerer from taking over the kingdom.
  • A band of rebels fights against an oppressive dictatorship.
  • A group of strangers is drawn together to protect a mystical object from falling into the wrong hands.
  • A young man discovers he is the heir to a powerful throne but must first overcome many obstacles to claim it.
  • A team of scientists works to perfect a serum that will grant immortality.
  • Adventurers travel to a mysterious island, searching for hidden treasure.
  • A group of people is suddenly transported to a world where magic is commonplace.
  • An elf must find a way to free her people from enslavement by the humans who have conquered their land.
  • A group of adventurers finds a treasure map that leads them to a hidden city of gold.
  • A musician discovers she has the power to control the minds of others with her music.
  • A wizard goes on a quest to find the six magical items that will unlock the power of the elements.
  • A group of friends must prevent an ancient evil from rising from the dead and taking over the world.
  • A group of strangers is drawn together by fate to save a kingdom from a dark curse.
  • A group of refugees fleeing a war-torn country find themselves in a strange and magical land.
  • A young girl is chosen to become the next Queen of Faerie and must protect her people from an evil sorcerer.
  • An orphaned boy is taken in by a group of outlaws who teach him how to fight and steal to survive in the harsh world outside the law.
  • A group of friends must unite to stop an ancient evil from awakening.
  • A young girl discovers she has magical powers and must stop an evil wizard from taking over the kingdom.
  • A group of strangers is drawn together by fate to save the world from destruction.
  • A team of superheroes fights to keep the world safe from villains.
  • A group of refugees must journey across a dangerous landscape to find safety.
  • A band of outlaws searches for treasure to save their home from being destroyed.
  • A group of unlikely heroes must work together to defeat a powerful enemy.
  • A young wizard goes on a dangerous quest to find the answers he seeks.
  • An elf must leave her home behind to save her people from certain destruction.
  • A group of adventurers travels through time and space to battle ancient monsters bent on destroying the world as we know it.
  • A group of people with special abilities band together to take down a corrupt government.
  • A young girl discovers she has the power to transform into animals.

And so much more. Dive into imaginative worlds with hidden passages, magical rings, and floating cities full of gold. Follow the journeys of fairy princesses, rebellious groups, and mystical creatures transformed by curses. Discover secret worlds within the Earth, fight alongside superheroes, or venture through haunted amusement parks. Witness epic battles against ancient evils, whether they be powerful wizards, cursed lands, or awakened undead.

Explore diverse characters and settings, from scientists pursuing immortality to outlaws fighting for survival. Grace the courts of Faerie royalty or roam the world alongside time-traveling adventurers. Experience suspenseful quests for magical treasures, mind-controlling musicians’ melodies, and elemental-wielding wizards.

These 71 fantasy story ideas not only provide you with a variety of concepts, characters, and fantastical elements but also inspire creativity and allow you to make each tale uniquely yours. So take a moment, sit down, and let your imagination run wild as you delve into these magical worlds and breathe life into your own fantasy masterpiece.

Classic Examples of Fantasy Stories

In the world of fiction, you’ll discover fantasy stories filled with magical creatures, spells, and enchanting settings. These tales can transport you to various periods and locations, often featuring a young protagonist learning to use their powers to save the world from evil. Fantasy stories cater to both children and adults, offering light-hearted adventures and darker, intricate epics.

Some well-known fantasy novels and series include J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings , C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia , George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, and J.K. Rowling’s iconic Harry Potter books. These exemplary works have captivated countless readers, leaving a lasting impact on the fantasy genre.

The Main Elements of a Typical Fantasy Story

In a typical fantasy story, you, the protagonist, are introduced to an enchanting world brimming with peculiar creatures and magical powers. Your role is to find your way, overcome various tasks, and save the day. Along the journey, vibrant friends and foes join you, helping you embrace your destiny to become the hero the world needs.

Characters in fantasy stories are either mundane, ordinary individuals, or magical beings with extraordinary abilities. Your story will likely follow the magical characters as they embark on a quest to secure a mystical artifact or accomplish a crucial mission that prevents the world from falling into chaos. Resilient and determined, you and your companions will undoubtedly prevail against the challenges and hindrances along your path.

Fantasy stories often unfold in whimsical settings like medieval kingdoms or remote lands of dragons and wizards. Your ultimate goal is to triumph over the ruthless villain and usher in peace throughout the land. As you journey through your fabled adventure, expect to encounter elements like plot twists, curses, magical swords, and strikingly vivid scenes that will bring your fantasy story to life.

What Should Your Fantasy Story Be About?

To create a captivating fantasy story, begin with a concept, such as the high stakes of war between kingdoms or magical creatures living in a fantastical world. To paint a vivid picture, build a strong, detailed world.

A useful technique is sketching a map of your imagined realm. It helps generate ideas for unique locations, intriguing characters, and exciting plot points while visualizing the landscape and diverse inhabitants.

With a solid story foundation, commence your writing journey! Concentrate on developing relatable characters and exhilarating action sequences. Remember, the crucial element of magic mustn’t be overlooked! Design an original and consistent magic system, adding a special touch to your narrative.

Embrace writing fantasy , indulge in happy writing , and produce remarkable creative works . Ultimately, let your imagination soar and uncover the endless possibilities your enchanting world presents.

How to Write a Fantasy Character

Creating an appealing fantasy character starts with selecting a solid archetype. Popular choices include the rebel, the lost soul, the orphan, and the outcast. These strong archetypes determine the foundation of your character’s backstory.

To make your character believable, develop a detailed backstory outlining who they are and why they do what they do. Ensure it aligns with the chosen archetype, for instance, if your character is an orphan, their backstory should involve being orphaned early in life.

Next, focus on your character’s appearance. Accurate descriptions help readers visualize the character, forming a mental image. If you need creative inspiration, online resources like Pinterest are useful.

Personality is an essential aspect to consider while crafting your character. Identify their core motivations, strengths, and weaknesses. Maintaining consistency between the chosen archetype and their personality traits is crucial. Cover the following entities where relevant: witch, wizard, warriors, character development, sorcerer, and character names.

As you begin writing, give readers insightful glimpses into your character’s thoughts and emotions to foster a personal connection. The more engaged readers are with your character’s journey, the more enjoyable their reading experience.

What Makes an Engaging Fantasy World

When creating an engaging fantasy world, several factors contribute to its allure and appeal. Here are some essential components to consider:

  • Intricate history and folklore : Crafting a complex backstory involving legends, myths, and the origins of your characters and creatures strengthens the foundation of your fantasy world. This depth allows readers to understand and appreciate the world you have built.
  • Vivid and immersive setting : The environment of your story plays a significant role, especially in fantasy tales. Describe your world in such a way that it captivates the reader’s imagination, immersing them in the experience.
  • Compelling and diverse characters : Fantasy worlds provide countless opportunities for unique character development. Create a variety of personalities, from brave knights and cunning wizards to magical creatures like dragons, fairies, and mermaids. Your characters should be relatable and interesting to the reader.
  • Thrilling plot : Keep your readers engaged with an exhilarating storyline that includes elements such as epic battles, daring rescues, treasure hunts, or a quest to save a kingdom.

By focusing on these crucial aspects, you will create a captivating fantasy world where your readers will enjoy exploring and getting lost. Remember, details like magic, towers, and new worlds will further enrich your worldbuilding endeavors.

Why Fantasy Is So Popular

Fantasy captures your imagination, taking you on journeys to magical realms and allowing you to experience different cultures without leaving your home. As an escape from everyday life, fantasy presents endless possibilities, making you a hero, villain, mage, or warrior, all without real-world consequences.

Embracing your creativity, this popular genre offers countless storylines and plot arcs, fueling your imagination and expanding your horizons. So, dive into the fantastic worlds that await you and enjoy the limitless adventures of fantasy literature and entertainment.

Taking Fables and Myths in a Different Direction

Fables and myths have been the cornerstone of storytelling for ages, delving into the depths of human experience and sparking countless adventures. In a fresh approach, you can take these timeless tales and put a new spin on them. Here are ten ideas to fuel your creativity:

  • Alternate roles : What if your favorite heroes were the villains and vice versa?
  • Misunderstood monsters : Could the creatures in fairy tales be unfairly represented?
  • Unexpected endings : Imagine if the climax of your favorite folklore went differently.
  • Real-life inspirations : What if the characters in mythology were based on actual people from the past?
  • Modern twist : How would these stories unfold if they took place in the present day?
  • Shifting settings : Transplant fables to a completely different time or location.
  • Contemporary concerns : How would legendary characters tackle today’s issues?
  • New interpretations : Offer a fresh perspective on age-old tales.
  • Different points of view : Retell stories from another character’s perspective.
  • Contemporary style : Reimagine the events of a myth with a modern approach.

By playing around with these ideas, you can create engaging narratives that blend the classic elements of fables, myths, and fairy tales with innovative twists. So go ahead, let your muse guide you, and breathe new life into these ancient stories.

The Most Popular Type of Fantasy

In the world of fantasy, you’ll find various subgenres that capture your imagination. One of the most popular types is urban fantasy , which brings magical elements into our modern-day cities. With a mix of supernatural creatures, vampires, and even superheroes, urban fantasy is an exciting escape from reality.

Another favorite subgenre is high fantasy , where you’ll dive into a medieval setting, full of magic and mythical beings. These stories are often rich in world-building and draw you into a land of heroes and adventure.

For fans of horror elements, dark fantasy combines the supernatural with the eerie and frightening. In this subgenre, elements of horror and suspense are blended seamlessly with fantastical creatures and scenarios.

Finally, YA fantasy has experienced a surge of popularity in recent years. These stories, aimed at young adult readers, often feature coming-of-age themes and depict relatable characters discovering newfound powers and abilities. No matter your taste in fantasy, there is a type waiting to sweep you off your feet and into a world of wonder.

Popular Fantasy Authors

You might already be familiar with these successful fantasy authors who have captured the imagination of readers worldwide:

  • Terry Pratchett
  • Brandon Sanderson
  • JRR Tolkien
  • Neil Gaiman
  • George RR Martin

As you explore the world of fantasy literature, these authors and their works will undoubtedly inspire you. Don’t forget that even smaller-scale authors like Caroline Leavitt also have unique and incredible stories to tell. Enjoy your literary journey!

How Fantasy Differs From Science Fiction

When you’re diving into the world of speculative fiction, you’ll notice some key differences between the fantasy genre and science fiction. Fantasy often revolves around magical elements and supernatural forces, as seen in novels and screenplays. Science fiction, however, delves into imaginative concepts such as futuristic technology, space exploration, and time travel.

While fantasy primarily emphasizes unique worlds and their colorful inhabitants, science fiction focuses on nurturing scientific ideas and their impact on societies. As a result, you’ll find that most fantasy narratives come across as idealistic and optimistic. On the other hand, science fiction can be denser, exploring darker, dystopian realities.

These distinctions stem from the core goals of the two genres. Fantasy strives to transport you to place detached from reality, filled with magic and wonder. In contrast, science fiction uses futuristic ideas to probe the complex challenges and questions facing our present-day world.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are some unique dark fantasy story concepts.

Dark fantasy stories often include elements of horror, suspense, and darker themes. Consider incorporating the following aspects:

  • A cursed village haunted by malevolent spirits
  • A protagonist struggling against a dark prophecy
  • An anti-hero or morally ambiguous character on a quest for redemption
  • A world entangled in a deadly power struggle between supernatural forces

Which magical components can enrich a fantasy plot?

To create a vibrant magical world, consider using the following elements:

  • Magical creatures such as dragons, elves, or shapeshifters
  • Unique magical abilities or inherited powers for your characters
  • Enchanted objects, like powerful artifacts or cursed items
  • A well-defined system of magic, with rules and limitations for its use

How do I weave romance into my fantasy story?

Incorporating romance can add depth and emotional resonance to your fantasy story. To introduce romantic elements:

  • Develop organic, believable relationships between characters
  • Consider using “slow-burn” romance, allowing connections to grow over time
  • Introduce romantic subplots that intertwine with the main story arc
  • Use the central fantasy elements or obstacles as catalysts for romantic development

What are some mature themes for a grown-up fantasy plot?

To create a more complex and engaging adult fantasy story, consider including themes that delve into deeper moral or emotional territory such as:

  • The morality of power and the consequences of wielding it
  • Psychological struggles and inner turmoil experienced by your characters
  • Moral ambiguity and blurring the line between good and evil
  • Exploration of societal issues within the context of a fantastical setting

How do I incorporate surprising twists in my fantasy story?

Adding unexpected twists can keep readers engaged and eager to see what happens next. To create dramatic turns in your fantasy story:

  • Develop intricate plots that gradually unfold, with twists that stem from character choices and actions
  • Mislead the reader using red herrings, without resorting to cheap tricks or inconsistent character behavior
  • Plant subtle hints and foreshadowing early in the story, to reward attentive readers later on
  • Consider incorporating a twist that challenges or subverts common genre tropes

What components establish an epic fantasy narrative?

Epic fantasy stories usually feature vast worlds, high stakes, and sweeping story arcs. To craft an epic fantasy tale, consider including the following elements:

  • A large-scale conflict with wide-reaching implications
  • Detailed world-building, including history, cultures, and geography
  • A diverse and well-developed cast of characters with varying motivations and backgrounds
  • A sense of grandeur and high stakes, often involving destiny or prophecy

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Fantasy Writing Prompts: 150+ Ideas to Get Started

Fantasy is one of the biggest genres out there, with a huge variety of sub genres and sub-sub genres.

Fantasy is also great because it can be combined with almost any other genre, whether it be romance, thriller, science fiction, and even literary books.

But because fantasy is so imaginative, it can sometimes be difficult to come up with all of the ideas you need to create a compelling fantasy story. With that in mind, here are a variety of fantasy writing prompts that you can use get your creative juices flowing.

Bear in mind that these prompts will help you come up interesting ideas, but if you want to become a bestseller, you need to test them out on the marketplace. One quick way to determine if a story born from a prompt will be successful is if you can find popular keywords about its subject. Tools like Publisher Rocket can also be a huge help in the brainstorming process, showing you the keywords that readers are actively searching for on Amazon, which may spark your next great idea. In addition, draw inspiration from the huge list of Amazon categories , which will tell you what subgenres that Fantasy readers frequently visit to find their next great book.

  • Recipes for a great fantasy story
  • Overarching fantasy tropes
  • A list of fantasy story ideas

Table of contents

  • What Makes a Good Fantasy?
  • Common Fantasy Genre Tropes
  • Genre Matchup Prompts
  • Portal Fantasy Prompts
  • Urban Fantasy Prompts
  • Epic Fantasy Prompts
  • Supernatural Prompts
  • Setting Prompts
  • World Building Prompts
  • Fantasy Character Prompts
  • Fantasy Romance Prompts
  • Test Your Fantasy Novel for Viability

Get it for FREE here: Get the PDF Here

Before we dive into the fantasy story prompts, let's talk about what makes a good fantasy book. This is difficult, because there is such variety to the type of fantasy story you could have, but most fantasy stories do tend to have certain elements:

  • Some type of magic, often a detailed magic system
  • A fantastical world
  • Huge stakes and conflicts
  • Extensive world building

Additionally, a good fantasy book is determined by elements that make up any good book, period. These can include:

  • Well-developed characters
  • A clear theme
  • A personal connection with the reader
  • Clever dialogue
  • Epic pacing and a satisfying conclusion

Get these down, and you are likely to have a very successful fantasy book, regardless of your magic or world building.

As I already mentioned, fantasy can be combined with almost any other genre, but there are specific tropes that are unique to fantasy, and if any of these show up in your book, it is likely a fantasy book.

Note that not all of these tropes are used in fantasy books, but they can be common, and when used well, they can be a huge help:

  • The chosen one
  • A Dark Lord
  • Good vs. evil
  • Some type of magic
  • The mentor figure
  • Different fantasy races
  • An ancient (often medieval) setting
  • Magical items
  • A heroic quest
  • Magical schools
  • Portals that open to a fantasy world
  • “The myths are real”
  • A secret magical world coexisting with ours (urban fantasy)

These are just a sample of the different tropes out there, and you should look at your specific sub genre for a better understanding of what tropes you should use. For example, an urban fantasy will have very different tropes from an epic fantasy. One of the best ways to research genre specific tropes is to go straight to the source- head over to winning Amazon categories , and see what books perform well within them.

With all that in mind, let's get into the prompts.

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Fantasy Writing Prompts

I've tried to categorize these ideas as best I can, though there will obviously be some overlap.

  • Take a fantasy trope and subvert it.
  • Write Robinson Crusoe but with fantasy elements.
  • Robots team up with wizards.
  • Someone learns how to harness magic in technology, leading to huge innovations.
  • What would a legal drama look like in an epic fantasy world?
  • Write a romance between a regular human and some kind of fantastical race/creature.
  • Write a heist in a fantasy setting.
  • Write an underdog sports story in a fantasy setting.
  • Write a revenge narrative in a fantasy setting.
  • What if aliens invaded a fantasy world?
  • What if Cthulhu awoke on a fantasy world?
  • Imagine a political thriller with a fantasy government.
  • Write a psychological thriller, where the character doesn't know if they are hallucinating the fantasy world or not.
  • Write a mystery set in an epic fantasy world, incorporating the magic system.
  • Pick a public domain story and turn it into a fantasy.
  • A character from another world escapes into ours.
  • Your character finds a magic portal in the basement.
  • Dreaming is actually the real world.
  • Your dreams start to come true.
  • A painting comes to life.
  • You discover a library where the books can come to life.
  • The character mutters gibberish to themselves, only to discover they were speaking a magical language.
  • Memory Lane is real.
  • A reality TV show featuring magical creatures.
  • You arrive in the underworld sooner than expected.
  • You discover a world that is the mirror opposite of hours.
  • You discover a door in your attic that wasn't there before.
  • A gamer discovers that the character he controls is actually a real person in a fantasy world.
  • Your world is actually the fantasy world, and electricity is magic.
  • Open world RPG
  • First-person shooter
  • A Mario-world-type game
  • A dark fantasy
  • A side scroller
  • A top-down strategy game
  • A fantasy MMO
  • A melee fighting game
  • A survival game
  • An astronaut discovers another world that is eerily similar to ours.
  • While out hiking, you discover a cave that leads to another world.
  • There is a world where our world is the stuff of myths and legends.
  • A huge fan of [insert fandom here], discovers that it's not fiction.
  • A rich uncle dies and leaves you his magical castle.
  • You go to a theme park, only for characters to come to life.
  • You enter a theme park ride, and it transports you to another world.
  • You discover that you are the dream of someone else.
  • You meet someone in real life who has the same dreams as you, and you can enter this dreamworld together.
  • Our reality is actually an advanced version of the Sims.
  • A young child and their parents get sucked into a children's book .
  • A Dungeons & Dragons game eventually becomes real.
  • An artist is able to escape into their paintings.
  • Write about someone with an average job, but in a world of magic or with magical elements.
  • You look up into the sky and see the two moons.
  • Your food starts to speak to you.
  • Two members of a classic fantasy the race (elf, dwarf, etc.) move in next door.
  • Your garden gnomes are actually real gnomes.
  • You somehow magically created a friend, and are constantly scared you'll make them disappear.
  • As a joke, you put on a tinfoil hat, but then something happens.
  • You wake up in a busy city, only to find that there is complete silence.
  • You discover a pet that is not of this earth in the pet store.
  • A photographer who specializes in photographing the supernatural.
  • A child is discovered to be immune to vampirism.
  • The gods from a [insert mythological pantheon here] return to earth.
  • You move into a supper inhabited entirely by ghosts.
  • Turns out, if you curse someone, that curse comes true.
  • There is a wizard in every town protecting us.
  • Turns out, you are Santa's grandchild.
  • Turns out, your nanny is actually a witch.
  • While on vacation, you discover a magical artifact out of mythology (i.e. Excalibur, Pandora's box, Thor's hammer, etc.).
  • An ancient Viking suddenly appears in modern-day London.
  • Deceased soldiers from an old war, suddenly come back to life.
  • Dragons return to earth after many years gone.
  • Turns out unicorns are real.
  • Scientists uncovers the science behind magic.
  • King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table are magically transferred into modern-day teenage bodies.
  • The Greek pantheon is magically transferred into modern-day teenage bodies.
  • The Norse pantheon is magically transferred into modern-day teenage bodies.
  • The Egyptian pantheon is magically transferred into modern-day teenage bodies.
  • A DNA archaeologist discovers that mythical creatures did exist.
  • Your character owns a magical shop in some important niche.
  • A tattoo artist is able to imbue their subject with magical abilities.
  • Write a story about Gods over a specific element like water, fire, etc.
  • A world where dragons are forced to fight each other, fight club style.
  • A child wishes that a family member will return from the dead, and it works.
  • A long-lost shipwreck is found, completely intact.
  • Society is built around epic, arena-like games.
  • Anything can become true if enough people believe it, and the villain exploits this fact.
  • A bounty hunter and an epic fantasy world, hunting warlocks, witches, and monsters.
  • Sherlock Holmes, but in an epic fantasy world.
  • Pick an ancient Earth culture that is not medieval England, and develop an epic fantasy around that.
  • Develop a culture over a huge timeline, from primitive beginnings, to the space-age.
  • What if the humans on a fantasy world had no idea that any other fantasy race existed, until they appeared for the first time.
  • Indiana Jones, but in an epic fantasy setting.
  • Your characters develop spiritual connections with a specific animal.
  • The trees have spirits, and only you can hear them.
  • The character is appointed as a bodyguard for a royal prince/princess.
  • A prince/princess discovers that they have a long lost twin, who was not raised in privilege.
  • Take an ordinary piece of modern-day technology, and postulate how a medieval society would react to it. 
  • Write about someone who has a relationship (platonic or romantic) with a ghost.
  • Ghosts/werewolves/vampires are actually super nice, and it's the fairies/elves/dwarves that are mean.
  • You sit down to read your favorite book, only to find it has changed.
  • You write a book, only to discover that it comes true.
  • Here character decides to have a conversation with the author of the book.
  • An angel walks on earth for a month.
  • An angel and a demon switch places for a week.
  • I monster is terrified of the child that sleeps above his bed.
  • Humans are actually giants, and there are micro-human races beneath us.
  • The giant emerges from the ocean.
  • A child is transported into the past, into the teenage body of their mother or father.
  • You go to a new high school, only to discover that everyone is a vampire.
  • The Titanic mysteriously arrives in New York as if nothing had happened, with all passengers accounted for.
  • A boating accident leads to the character being saved by mermaids.
  • A deck of tarot cards accurately predicts the future for a group of friends.
  • All of the figures in a wax museum become real.
  • A ghost is having difficulty finding a place to haunt.
  • A writer discovers that God is also a writer, and our reality is his book.
  • It is discovered the zombies are actually very intelligent.
  • Set your story in a fortuneteller's parlor.
  • What if the sun suddenly didn't rise.
  • What if the sun suddenly rose in the West instead of the east.
  • Write a fantasy story in the wild West setting.
  • A new continent is discovered.
  • You discover the fountain of youth, but it turns out it only sends you forward in time.
  • A retirement home for superheroes.
  • A history teacher can take their students to any time or place in history.
  • Area 51 protects a gateway to another dimension.
  • Area 51 protects a gateway to hell.
  • Use a currency that isn't money, and build your world from there.
  • Luck is not random, but is an inherited genetic trait, or a skill that can be learned.
  • I day in the life of a magical creature.
  • Someone with the power of alchemy, but can only change a material into something useless.
  • Snow falls one morning, but it isn't white.
  • A character can only live three times in their lifetime.
  • There is a river that will wipe your memory if you drink from it.
  • You can buy bottled emotions.
  • Develop a magic system based on self-help principles
  • Develop a magic system based on biology
  • Develop a magic system based on computer programming
  • Develop a magic system based on commonplace social customs like shaking hands
  • The story is set within a character's mind.
  • A character wakes up in a past life.
  • A character wakes up in a future reincarnation of themself.
  • A character spends their whole life faking that they have magic, then suddenly discover they do.
  • Your character is destined to do something they don't want.
  • Your character becomes aware that they are a work of fiction.
  • Write a story from the perspective of an orc.
  • One of your parents is a werewolf, the other a vampire.
  • People thought you were the chosen one, but turns out they were mistaken. Now what?
  • A doctor claims to know how you can get someone to fall in love with you.
  • You are immortal, married to a mortal, and you decide to tell them.
  • Your character can suddenly read minds.
  • A social outcast finds that they are actually the prince/princess of a distant world.
  • Your character gains the ability to make any wish come true.
  • A character can turn into any animal by wishing it.
  • Your character receives a new superpower every day, losing the previous one.
  • The ghost of a parent helps a young child through difficult times.
  • A character is mute, but can talk to animals.
  • Someone is hunted by their alternate universe twin.
  • A monster, generally feared by all, is actually a gentle giant.
  • Write a romance between one superpowered individual and one who doesn't have powers.
  • Write a romance between an elf and an orc, or two other diametrically opposed races.
  • A romance between an angel and a demon.
  • Sirens usually kill humans, until one falls in love.

Hopefully, the creative juices are flowing now. But before you start writing your book, it's a good idea to see if there's a market for the type of fantasy you're looking to write . Since Fantasy is such a competitive genre, a little research goes a long way. And the easiest way to get this research done is with Publisher Rocket.

You can think of the information you get from Publisher Rocket as the foundation for your fantasy writing career. You get insights directly from Amazon on:

  • Keywords – Metadata to position your book on Amazon.
  • Competition – Allowing you to see what's selling and how stiff the competition is.
  • Categories – So you know where people who are looking for books like yours go to find them.
  • Amazon Ads – Helps you quickly configure a list of profitable keywords for running ads.

Check out Publisher Rocket here to get started.

Jason Hamilton

When I’m not sipping tea with princesses or lightsaber dueling with little Jedi, I’m a book marketing nut. Having consulted multiple publishing companies and NYT best-selling authors, I created Kindlepreneur to help authors sell more books. I’ve even been called “The Kindlepreneur” by Amazon publicly, and I’m here to help you with your author journey.

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50 Fantasy Writing Prompts and Fantasy Plot Ideas

mysterious cave | 50 Fantasy Writing Prompts and Fantasy Plot Ideas #how to plot a fantasy novel #epic fantasy story ideas #epic fantasy writing prompts #fantasy plot generator #dark fantasy story ideas #fantasy story ideas #long story ideas

I get a lot of questions about how to plot a fantasy novel, so I thought this list of fantasy story ideas would come in handy. It’s basically a fantasy plot generator in list form!

Most of these are epic fantasy writing prompts, but depending on how you handle them, some of them could be used for paranormal romance, urban fantasy, or dark fantasy story ideas as well. I imagined them as long story ideas, but you might find inspiration for a short story, too.

A writer could take any of these fantasy writing prompts and master plots in countless different directions. After all, the Earthsea  trilogy , Harry Potter , The Name of the Wind , and The Magicians are all about schools of magic, and they’re all imaginative and quite different from one another.

A few of these are rooted in history, fairy tales, or real-life occurrences. They could give you inspiration for a small detail in a novel or a whole story.

Be sure to pin or bookmark the list for future reference! And if you’re also interested in writing scifi, check out the companion list of 50 Plot Ideas and Writing Prompts for Science Fiction .

50 FANTASY WRITING PROMPTS and plot ideas! Get them for free on bryndonovan.com! | image of magical windows, lights

1. A counterfeiter’s coins or a forger’s fake works of art have magical properties.

2. A neglected god or goddess attempts to reclaim his or her former glory.

3. People are spontaneously combusting.

4. People are committing surprising acts in their sleep.

5. This might cure the current plague—if it can be found.

6. A smuggler, mercenary, or thief takes down or helps take down an oppressive ruler or regime.

7. An attempt to rescue a friend, family member, or lover will put a larger mission or cause in jeopardy.

8. A peasant girl, who may be good or evil, believes that a divine figure in a vision told her to lead an army to victory.

9. The ones who live in the bottom of the ocean come to the surface.

10. Someone can bring a person back to life by taking his or her place in the underworld.

11. A musician can kill or resurrect people with his or her music.

12. A warrior defects to the other side in hopes of a speedier resolution.

13. Anything becomes true if enough people believe in it deeply enough.

14. A person has been turned into an object by magic.

15. To open the door, a person must use a key whittled out of one of his or her own bones.

16. A person doesn’t know why he or she has stopped aging.

17. After an archaeologist digs up a treasure, the original owner shows up to take it back.

18. Two allies or two factions of the same army are tricked into attacking one another.

19. Miners discover stone spheres with strange markings.

20. Soldiers take souvenirs from their fallen enemies, which proves to be their downfall.

21. A woman or a group of women plot an escape or revolt against a forced marriage or a whole system of forced marriage.

22, His magical powers don’t work when he’s drunk.

23. Flowers from this garden are the most precious commodities in the realm…for a very good reason.

24. For this race of beings, the sense of smell is more important than vision or hearing.

25. The crops really do wither unless there’s a sacrifice.

26. She made a noble sacrifice, and now, as a ghost, she resents it.

27. They live on an island in the middle of a lava lake. It has advantages and disadvantages.

28. The bite of a particular animal may kill you, or it may give you new powers.

29. For this society, battle is a religious observance.

30. This is the most pitiful excuse for a castle in all the land.

31. This so-called magical sword has turned out to be a piece of junk.

32. A beautiful unmanned ship sails itself into the harbor.

33. The crowd of evil spirits flying into the village looks like a flock of birds.

34. So many birds or butterflies migrate across this land that for days, it darkens the skies.

35. The land has been cursed to permanent darkness, daytime, fog, wind, or lightning strikes.

36. The changeling thought she was human, but now she’s been returned to her own kind.

37. At this auction, people are bidding a lot more than money.

38. The queen’s twin sister was supposed to have been drowned at birth.

39. The artist gives people tattoos that determine their fates.

40. The muse inspires artists, writers, and musicians to great work, but when she leaves them, they become so despondent they sometimes die.

41. A worker learns that the tower they are building will serve a much different purpose than what they were all told.

42. Each person’s spirit is connected to a particular tree in the forest.

43. This supernatural horse race will decide their people’s fate.

44. He’s been hiding in the catacombs for years.

45. The archeologist finds a fossil of a creature assumed to be mythical.

46. Lightning strikes a person and leaves mysterious words or a map burned onto her or his skin.

47. A spirit possesses a human or animal body and is then unable to get out of it.

48. The river has a spirit of its own.

49. The king ran away and is living under an assumed name.

50. They fought long and hard to bring this new king to the throne, and it turns out he’s totally incompetent.

I hope you like the list! My  list of mythical creatures and beings might also be a good fantasy plot generator.

And if you want more story ideas, please check out my book 5,000 Writing Prompts !  It has 100 more fantasy writing prompts in addition to the ones on this list, plus hundreds of other master plots by genre, dialogue and character prompts, and much more.

fantasy narrative writing prompts

If you don’t want to miss future writing posts, make sure to subscribe to the blog — you can sign up below. Thanks so much for reading, and happy writing!

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60 thoughts on “ 50 fantasy writing prompts and fantasy plot ideas ”.

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Thanks for sharing, Bryn! I’ll share a link to your list during my next Write it Wednesday — it’s already queued up.

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Yay! Thank you so much!

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#8. Now where have I heard that story before . . .

Hahaha! As a kid, I was fascinated by it. And as an adult, I think it’s such a weird story.

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Great list! Thanks. I wish I had more time. I want to write a bunch of short stories now.

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Go ahead. Take any few minutes you have. You don’t need whole hours set aside. Write on the train, in your coffee break, when the kids are having a nap, plot your story while walking the dog or at the gym. Write in longhand in a notebook if you’ve not got your computer with you. Just go ahead and do it. You’ll be surprised where you can find a few minutes.

I’m always wishing there were more time to write! Thanks, Earl! 🙂

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I love this!

I just wrote a scene involving spontaneous human combustion the other day. Researching it was sure hair-raising and gruesome.

Oh man, this almost sent me down a googling rabbit hole! I’m resisting! I think it’s so fascinating, though!

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This is great, Bryn. Thanks for sharing. 🙂 — Suzanne

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great post – gave me some ideas thank you so much

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There are some awesome prompts here! Thank you! I’ve been stuck in a rut for a while and a couple of these are sparking now. 🙂

Hi, Jenna! Yay, I’m so glad you liked it!

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Hello ms. Author, I was looking for an idea for a trait and a plot for a story Ive re written 3 times, and then I saw 11. It was pretty similar to my story In a way that only in my story, the music creates a road of some sort and guide the character somehow, I had some ither ideas, but this ine seemed more interesting. So, I was wondering if maybe you can suggest a way that could be useful and just maybe, it sparks something in me.. thx:))

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This gave me a great way to start a story that’s been stuck without a beginning for too long

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Great ideas, thanks so much for sharing 🙂

  • Pingback: START WRITING: My first writing prompt and reflections | Teatime With Eivie

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these are all so good,, (but #50 pretty much just describes america now lmao)

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Some excellent ideas here! I’m going to check out your other lists right now. Thanks for this!

Thanks, CJ! I hope you like the other ones, too!

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what is the process to write a perfect book

I’d tell you if I knew, Alan. 🙂

  • Pingback: Você não tem uma ideia, mas quer, pode e deve escrever mesmo assim – Romancearte

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#22 gave me a fun character idea, only I switched it around. Instead of his powers not working when he’s drunk, it turns out that the more drunk he is, the more potent his powers. But, being drunk, he’s a lot worse at using them

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Hi Bryn! Thanks for compiling this list. I really love it. I’m featuring five of these prompts on my instagram account (tizzlovesrowdy) to round out my “100-hours in 3 months” first draft challenge. I started on Dec 5th during NaNo and wanted to keep the momentum going. I’m saving your site. Great job! =)

Hi, Niki! Oh wow, that challenge sounds amazing. Good for you for keeping the momentum going after NaNo! So glad the site is helpful!

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Thank you, my daughter had major imagination block and your ideas provided a great stimulus

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I like number 8 and I live in France just near the family home of Jeanne d’Arc !

Thanks for this list. Some of them are now rattling around in my head asking to be let out as stories or novels.

  • Pingback: 50 Science Fiction Plot Ideas and Writing Prompts – Written By Bryn Donovan – Writer's Treasure Chest

This was extremely useful! I am in the midst of a large writers’ block, and this has given me some inspiration. I appreciate it!

So glad it was helpful! Happy writing. 🙂

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i like #36! very awesome novel idea! thnx Bryn!! 😀

Aw yay, so glad you like it!

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Thank you so much, there are so many handy plots I can use for my books. I love num. 10. Thank you. You helpen me so much. (I’m 11)

Hi there! I’m so glad you like them. Thank you! Have fun writing!

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I’m not certain I’ll ever finish it, but you’ve inspired a story I’ve been waiting to write. When I was 13, I made a character I loved. I drew her all over my homework and tests. When I first started tinkering with writing, I wanted to write her story and could never think of anything. The prompt involving magic and the old stone in a cave finally gave it hold. You see, I’ve been wanting to create a comic with her for years and now I think I might finally do it. Than you very much for what may have just been a list of prompts to you, but a world to me.

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I’m here because I need a plot for a fantasy RPG game I’m making, and this was actually pretty helpful (not that I didn’t expect it to be :D). Thanks!! Now I just need to make a character… hmm.

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Thank you so much Bryn! Now i’m feeling inspired, lots of love

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I did a review of my Wolf series and I used several of your prompts, (without knowing,) as parts of the story. My point is more than one idea can be used in the telling of a story. Here is a list of your prompts used and how I used them.

Someone can bring a person back to life by taking his or her place in the underworld. // The staff of life Wolf is bound to will kill him if he tries to heal someone who has passed. A person has been turned into an object by magic.// Sir Whisperblade sacrifices herself to start the growth of the new first tree. Miners discover stone spheres with strange markings. // Archeologists discover funerary pots one of which has an image of a female warrior. A woman or a group of women plot an escape or revolt against a forced marriage or a whole system of forced marriage. // Grace offers to take the place of a woman in a forced marriage but plans to defeat her new husband. They live on an island in the middle of a lava lake. It has advantages and disadvantages. // The Kaniwa tribe lives in isolation in the Amazon, but are threatened by gold prospectors. The bite of a particular animal may kill you, or it may give you new powers. // Touching the First Tree will either turn you into a part of it or give you a staff of life. An artist gives people tattoos that determine their fates. // Tattoos are given by tribal tradition and have a deep effect on the tattooed, who join the tribe or affects their perception in the modern world.

OMG THAT SOUNDS LIKE SUCH AN AWESOME STORY !!

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wow I’m really inspired to write a fantasy story with these amazing plots! Keep writing <3

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This is incredible, because 7 of these prompts are things I’ve already written in two of my stories xD I’m vibing with this entire list tbh. Thank you for writing it!

Hi Emily! Haha, great minds! That is so awesome. I’m glad you’re digging the list! Thanks for the kind words 🙂

Great ideas and much appreciated!

This was stupid no fucking help at all

so fucking useless never going to use this again.

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Hi I have a book I want to write but I don’t know what should happen next so far it’s about a girl who falls into a hole in the sand at Kryptonite lake and ends up in a rebellion hideout for the fantasy creatures she had only read about in books. She is friends with a wolf and the wolf kenigh saw her fall down the hole and followed her but a centaur attempts to shot him but not before she jumps in front of the arrow she then realizes she is imune to the type of silver the arrow was made out of the rebellion (I need a name for it) believes she found their hideout for a purpose and that she has some special talent to help them like their newest member a human boy she noticed when she first came .I don’t know what should happen next or the reason for rebellion I want it to be unlike any other book and have lots of action and plot twists.Can anyone help me or give me advice about this ?

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Thank you very much, Bryn et al! I need thisa!

Okay, it’s late and I don’t know what I was writing in the previous comment. Sorry.

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50 fantasy writing prompts to inspire

November 10, 2023 by Richard Leave a Comment

fantasy narrative writing prompts

Step into a realm of magic and wonder with this collection of 50 fantasy writing prompts. From tales of powerful wizards to adventures with dragons, angels, and mystical lands, let these story ideas spark your imagination. Whether you want to write about an apprentice caught up in magical mishaps, an epic quest against a dark lord, or supernatural mysteries in a secret world, you’ll find inspiration here. With ideas spanning common fantasy tropes to fresh new twists, these prompts aim to ignite that creative spark and help you craft your own original fantasy stories. Each prompt provides a starting point – a single scene or concept to launch your tale. Where you take it from there is up to you. Will you create sprawling epics or flash fiction? Lighthearted adventures or chilling dark fantasy? Let your inner world-builder run wild. So gather your figurative sword and shield, ready your spells, and embark on a vision quest into the realm of fantasy writing. Exciting quests and magical tales await.

  • Write about a magician’s apprentice who accidentally summons a monster during a spell gone wrong.
  • A knight goes on a quest to slay a dragon, only to find the dragon is good. Now they must prevent the corrupt king from finding and killing it.
  • The orphan stable boy discovers he can communicate with horses, then finds out he’s actually the heir to a horse lord.
  • A witch’s spellbook of potions is accidentally swapped with a cookbook at the local library. Write about the magical chaos that ensues.
  • An elf sets out on a mission to find their missing sibling, believed to be held captive by a band of trolls.
  • The blacksmith’s apprentice turns out to be the prophesied one with the power to wield a legendary magical hammer.
  • Two children wander into a dark forest only to realize it is the gateway to the fairy realm.
  • A half-elf teen tries to find out whether their mother or father was the magical one so they can learn more about their talents.
  • Twins are separated at birth – one is raised as a prince, the other by wolves in the forest. They eventually meet and switch places.
  • A farmboy discovers a glowing stone in a field, which speaks to him and gives him magical powers.
  • A wizard detective works to solve mysteries in a realm where magic is common and spells cause chaos.
  • The youngest prince sets out to save his brothers from the fairy who cursed them to live as swans.
  • Write about an alternate 1840s where magic rules, following a mage who solves magical crimes.
  • A half-angel, half-demon character is rejected by both communities. On their journey they discover a third way.
  • A seemingly average goblin works to gain respect and improve conditions for goblin workers in a world of elves.
  • An explorer discovers a lost civilization of advanced magic users and accidentally unleashes an ancient evil.
  • A mermaid saved the life of a drowning human. Now she longs to meet them again despite the divide of their worlds.
  • The Grim Reaper’s scythe is stolen. Now they must retrieve it before the natural order spirals into chaos.
  • A witch with healing magic feels called to help during a devastating outbreak after regular medicine fails.
  • A hero discovers a hidden land where mythical creatures live – mermaids, centaurs, griffins, etc. But an evil presence looms.
  • The human king tries to default on a deal with the fairy queen. She sends a fairy to claim the firstborn child as payment.
  • A bard fulfills legends by slaying mythical beasts. But they discover the mythical beasts were good all along.
  • A seemingly crazy old wizard helps a magic apprentice recover knowledge and skills lost to a curse.
  • A mage who can absorb others’ magic seeks out the source of all magic to gain ultimate power.
  • Two immortal lovers continually find each other over centuries but destiny and magic keeps tearing them apart.
  • A thief steals magical artifacts from guarded places. On the run, they discover one item’s dark purpose.
  • A cursed amulet that transforms the wearer into a ravenous monster has been lost. Someone must find and contain it before it’s worn again.
  • In the ultimate showdown between good and evil, an average person’s choice unexpectedly tips the scales.
  • A wizarding duel goes wrong, and two mages’ consciousnesses accidentally end up switched into each other’s bodies.
  • A magic user is outlawed and hunted for powers beyond their control. They search for sanctuary with others like them.
  • An evil necromancer raises an undead army. One soldier regains sentience and seeks to stop them from within.
  • A seafaring nation invades an island kingdom rumored to be protected by a powerful sea monster.
  • On a planet with high and low magic realms, a traveler discovers their true magical identity during a perilous journey.
  • The orphan stable boy can actually talk to animals. When the prince goes missing, only he can gather clues from the wildlife.
  • The gods walk among humans through avatars that incarnate in each new generation. You’re one – but which god is within you?
  • The prince is put under an enchanted sleep, and the princess must uncover how to break the spell.
  • A shifter who can transform into a dragon discovers a hidden community of other shifters and an underground resistance.
  • You’re trapped in a magical video game world. The only way back home? Defeat the dark sorcerer boss.
  • A camping trip goes awry when the forest comes alive with mythical creatures bent on driving away humans.
  • A wizard school dropout is the underdog against a rival bent on controlling dangerous forbidden magic to dominate the kingdom.
  • A grief-stricken inventor creates a homunculus in his loved one’s image, but magic cannot recreate their soul.
  • A cursed mushroom circle transports people through the fairy realm, but they can never return to the human world.
  • A prophecy says only a child born during an eclipse can wield the Chosen One’s sword and defeat the spreading darkness.
  • A thief picking pockets on crowded market day accidentally lifts an amulet imprisoning an ancient djinni bent on revenge.
  • A sibling seeks a magic cure for supernatural creature blood so their werewolf sister can lead a normal life.
  • A grieving dryad binds her life force to the towering ancient oak, cursing loggers from cutting it down again.
  • Villagers sacrifice maidens to the monster in the old temple until one day his latest victim breaks free. She wants vengeance.
  • You’re accepted into a secret magical order, but your mentor is suspicious of your immense gifts. Are you the prophesied one…or spy?
  • A wish gone wrong – now you keep involuntarily shifting into your Halloween costume form! How do you lift the magic?
  • A half-elf searches their missing human mother’s childhood home for clues about why she abandoned her people. The mystery reveals a dark royal secret.

Let these 50 fantasy prompts open portals to mythical lands, incredible magic, and epic adventures. Whether you’re a seasoned fantasy author or just starting out, use these ideas as a launchpad to take your writing to fantastical new heights. Each prompt is a story seed bursting with potential. Where they bloom is up to you. Craft tales of heroism and villainy, mythical quests, supernatural occurrences, or mystical worlds. Give life to colorful characters on extraordinary journeys. With this collection of prompts as your guide, you’re sure to craft sensational stories that capture the imagination. Now ready your pen, pick a prompt that inspires you, and begin – your own magical tale awaits. Please remember to check out our other writing prompts . 

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About Richard

Richard Edwards is a writer and an educator and the owner editor of Every Writer. Follow him on Twitter, and check out our Submissions page .

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101 Fantastical Fantasy Story Prompts

fantasy narrative writing prompts

Do you want to write in the fantasy genre but need help conjuring compelling stories and concepts? Sometimes reading simple story prompts is the easiest way to get those creative juices flowing .

We get our ideas from many sources — news headlines, novels, television shows, movies, our lives, our fears, our phobias, etc. They can come from a scene or moment in a film that wasn’t fully explored. They can come from a single visual that entices the creative mind — a seed that continues to grow and grow until the writer is forced to finally put it to paper or screen.

They may inspire screenplays, novels, short stories, or even smaller moments that you can include in what stories you are already writing.

Common Elements in the Fantasy Genre

The fantasy genre typically involves magical or supernatural elements (sometimes in conjunction with speculative science) within fictional worlds — or realistic worlds enhanced by magic and the supernatural.

  • Mythology and folklore can come into play as starting points.
  • History and natural laws of reality are often not needed for the story to be coherent.
  • Fantasy story and character elements do not need to be scientifically possible.

Perfect examples of the fantasy genre and its various subgenres include:

  • Lords of the Rings
  • Pirates of the Caribbean
  • Marry Poppins
  • Who Framed Roger Rabbit
  • The Chronicles of Narnia
  • Back to the Future
  • Groundhog Day
  • Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
  • Harry Potter
  • The Wizard of Oz
  • MCU and DC movies

In the spirit of helping writers find those seeds, here we offer 101 originally conceived fantasy story prompts that you can use as inspiration for your next fantasy story.

Note: Because we’re all connected to the same pop culture, news headlines, and inspirations, any similarity to any past, present, or future screenplays, novels, short stories, television pilots, television series, plays, or any other creative works is purely coincidence. These story writing prompts were conceived on the fly without any research or Google search for inspiration.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'

1. What if a portal was opened that led to a mirror-opposite version of our world? 

2. A young brother and sister find an old door in their basement that wasn't there before.

3. A man reads a novel, soon realizing that the story is his very own — and according to the book, a killer is looming.

4. A gamer realizes that the shooter game he plays is actually controlling real people in another world.

5. A gamer learns that the soldier he is controlling is actually a real soldier in a real war.  

6. An astronaut jettisoned into the cold of space in a mission gone wrong suddenly appears at the doorstep of his family.

7. The world's population is overtaken by vampires — all except one little child.

8. The Greek Gods have returned to claim Earth as their own.

9. A brother and sister new to the neighborhood realize that their parents have moved them to a town of witches.

10. An angel decides to walk the Earth as a human for a single week.

11. A demon and an angel challenge each other to walk in the other's shows for a single week. 

12. A family moves into a suburb inhabited solely by ghosts.

13. While on a hike, a group of friends discovers a tunnel that leads into another world.

14. A child makes a wish that their recently deceased parents return from the dead.

15. During a bout of road rage, a woman puts a curse on a man that upends his life. 

16. Characters from a little girl's short story she was forced to write for school begin to manifest in her town. 

17. A little boy wishes Christmas could be every day — and his wish comes true. 

18. An app developer discovers a way to email people from the past. 

19. The world as we know it is actually the scary bedtime stories of a fairytale-like place. 

20. Wizards exist in hiding in every town and are tasked with protecting us from Dark Lords. 

The Chronicles of Narnia

'The Chronicles of Narnia'

21. A monster is terrified by the scary child who lives  above  his bed. 

22. Humans on Earth are actually the giants of the world, with ant-sized humans living underground.

23. One day, dogs begin to speak English while humans are forced to bark to communicate.

24. An heir to a recently deceased man inherits a magical castle.

25. A giant human suddenly emerges from underneath the ocean.

26. Time is frozen — all but for 100 people throughout the world.

27. A Star Wars fan discovers that the Star Wars universe was not a figment of George Lucas's imagination. 

28. During a family vacation, the worlds and characters of Disneyland come to life.

29. A theme park ride breaks down, stranding the people in the world of the ride. 

30. A stay-at-home mother makes a wish that she could have four versions of herself to share the work — it comes true. 

31. A boy is transported into the body of the boyhood version of his father. 

32. A mother and father are transported into the bodies of their teenage twins. 

33. Santa's grandchild returns to the North Pole for Christmas vacation, oblivious to her family history. 

34. Siblings discover that their nanny is a witch. 

35. Siblings discover that their nanny is actually the tooth fairy. 

36. A boy on vacation with his family finds Excalibur stuck in the rock floor of a castle. 

37. A naughty boy hiding from his parents under the water of their pool, resurfaces to find himself in the ocean waters amidst a deserted island. 

38. The ceramic garden gnomes of a neighborhood come to life to terrorize the town. 

39. A man discovers that his life is actually the dream of another. 

40. A woman discovers that her life is actually the dream of her dream self. 

Back to the Future

'Back to the Future'

41. A man and woman share the same dream world — they eventually meet in person, shocked to see their dreams coming true. 

42. When friends play Dungeons and Dragons, their campaign comes to life around them. 

43. A woman discovers that our reality is actually a simulated game like The Sims. 

44. A Viking warrior washes up on the shore of a New England town. 

45. A man obsessed with the cartoons of his youth is whisked away into their worlds after his wife begrudgingly says he spends too much time watching them. 

46. A successful stockbroker accused of insider trading claims to be from the future. 

47. A boy that wishes he could be the strongest person alive turns into a towering giant. 

48. A high school student believes that his classmates are vampires. 

49. A high school student can suddenly read the minds of his peers. 

50. Deceased soldiers return to their Civil War-era homes.

51. An 400-year-old shipwreck washes ashore in perfect condition.

52. An outcast nerd discovers that he's actually a revered prince from another planet, hidden by his royal family to escape an evil space lord. 

53. A little girl has the power to make any wish she wants to come true — and her choices are terrorizing the neighborhood. 

54. A history teacher has the power to take his students to any time and place in history.  

55. A boy who wishes he could fly wakes up as a baby hawk. 

56. A boy on a farm makes a scarecrow that comes alive.

57. The Peter Pan story is true. 

58. When Dorothy was wisked away to Oz, someone from Oz was left in her place back in Kansas for her Aunt and Uncle to deal with.   

59. When children die young, their spirits attend a boarding school that decides whether they become angels or demons. 

60. Area 51 protects a gateway into hell. 

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

61. Area 51 hides a portal into another world. 

62. A famous classic cartoon character finds a portal into our world. 

63.  A brother and sister fighting over who gets to play Fortnite are sucked into the game. 

64. The biggest earthquake in history opens up an underground world of humanoids. 

65. The Titanic suddenly reaches New York with all of the original passengers and crew members on board. 

66. A family visiting a cabin are stuck inside during a terrible storm. To pass the time, they play classic board games and find themselves sucked into those worlds trying to win the games to survive. 

67. A boy that torments the neighborhood pets wakes up in the body of a dog. 

68. A single father and his son are sucked into the worlds of Dr. Seuss. 

69. A disabled boy and an egotistical professional athlete switch bodies.  

70. A prince in a fantasy land struggles to find his princess, only to fall in love with a wicked witch that lives in the haunted forest. 

71.  Dragons return to Earth after a prophecy is fulfilled.  

72. A hunter discovers a unicorn deep within the woods. 

73. A scientist discovers that magic is real. 

74. After a night of creating Dungeons and Dragons characters, a group of friends awakens as the very characters they've created. 

75. A runaway boy discovers a group of real-life trolls living under his town's bridge. 

76. A teenage girl is told by a visiting elf that she is the heir to a magical kingdom. 

77. A family vacationing on a yacht is saved by mermaids when it capsizes. 

78. At a sleepover, a deck of tarot cards predicts the future of a group of friends, and everything comes true.  

79. An artist has the ability to escape into the world of classic paintings. 

80. Wax museum guests are sucked into the worlds of the displays. 

Enchanted

'Enchanted'

81. A boy living in the inner city and fleeing its crime-riddled streets escapes into a library where the books are literal portals into fantastical worlds. 

82. After moving into an old mansion, a young boy is the only one in his family that can see the ghosts that live there. 

83. A man begins to read a book that tells his life story. 

84. A woman sees a unicorn in the woods and becomes obsessed with finding it, even when her hometown ridicules her. 

85. A woman whose son was kidnapped years ago is visited by a ghost that helps her find him alive and well.  

86. A strange old man that has moved next door to a kid's family is actually that kid's older self that has time-traveled back in time to revisit his childhood before his death. 

87. A teenager receives a new superpower every day, with the previous superpowers disappearing as each new one manifests.

88. An angel knows that the human boy he was assigned to protect is due to be a victim of a travesty, and they decide to do whatever they can to keep him safe — even if it means going against the boy's destiny. 

89. A group of high school friends discovers portals to the past and future and uses them to ace their history and science exams. 

90. Two versions of the same high school student from different parallel universes discover each other through a portal and decide to swap lives for one week before the portal closes for good. 

91. The ghost of a father helps his son through difficult times.  

92. A ghost searches a suburban neighborhood for the perfect house to haunt. 

93. A writer discovers that God is actually a writer like himself. 

94. King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table are magically transferred into the bodies of high school students. 

95. An archeologist discovers ancient DNA samples that prove mythical creatures did exist.  

96.  A fallen angel falls from the heavens into the backyard of a young girl's house. 

97. A Wall Street broker discovers that he's the heir of the real Robin Hood. 

98. During a classic Universal Monster movie film festival, a young cinephile is transported into the worlds of those movies. 

99. A woman falls in love with a historical figure and wills herself back in time to meet him. 

100. A group of middle school friends ventures into the underground drainage tunnels of their town, only to discover a race of blind beings within the darkness. 

101. A screenwriter reads a list of writing prompts and discovers that what they've read begins to come true in the real world. 

Share this with your writing peers or anyone that loves a good fantasy story. Have some prompts of your own? Let us know on Facebook and Twitter !

Want More Prompts? Read 131 Sci-Fi Scripts That Screenwriters Can Download and Study !

Ken Miyamoto has worked in the film industry for nearly two decades, most notably as a studio liaison for Sony Studios and then as a script reader and story analyst for Sony Pictures.

He has many studio meetings under his belt as a produced screenwriter, meeting with the likes of Sony, Dreamworks, Universal, Disney, Warner Brothers, as well as many production and management companies. He has had a previous development deal with Lionsgate, as well as multiple writing assignments, including the produced miniseries  Blackout , starring Anne Heche, Sean Patrick Flanery, Billy Zane, James Brolin, Haylie Duff, Brian Bloom, Eric La Salle, and Bruce Boxleitner, and the feature thriller  Hunter’s  Creed  starring Duane “Dog the Bounty Hunter” Chapman, Wesley Truman Daniel, Mickey O’Sullivan, John Victor Allen, and James Errico. Follow Ken on Twitter  @KenMovies

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Here's how our contest works: every Friday, we send out a newsletter containing five creative writing prompts. Each week, the story ideas center around a different theme. Authors then have one week — until the following Friday — to submit a short story based on one of our prompts. A winner is picked each week to win $250 and is highlighted on our Reedsy Prompts page.

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This list of 1800+ creative writing prompts has been created by the Reedsy team to help you develop a rock-solid writing routine. As all aspiring authors know, this is the #1 challenge — and solution! — for reaching your literary goals. Feel free to filter through different genres, which include...

Dramatic — If you want to make people laugh and cry within the same story, this might be your genre.

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Romance — One of the most popular commercial genres out there. Check out these story ideas out if you love writing about love.

Fantasy — The beauty of this genre is that the possibilities are as endless as your imagination.

Dystopian – Explore the shadowy side of human nature and contemporary technology in dark speculative fiction.

Mystery — From whodunnits to cozy mysteries, it's time to bring out your inner detective.

Thriller and Suspense — There's nothing like a page-turner that elicits a gasp of surprise at the end.

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  • Writing Contests in 2023 — the finest contests of 2021 for fiction and non-fiction authors of short stories, poetry, essays, and more.

Beyond creative writing prompts: how to build a writing routine

While writing prompts are a great tactic to spark your creative sessions, a writer generally needs a couple more tools in their toolbelt when it comes to developing a rock-solid writing routine . To that end, here are a few more additional tips for incorporating your craft into your everyday life.

  • NNWT. Or, as book coach Kevin Johns calls it , “Non-Negotiable Writing Time.” This time should be scheduled into your routine, whether that’s once a day or once a week. Treat it as a serious commitment, and don’t schedule anything else during your NNWT unless it’s absolutely necessary.
  • Set word count goals. And make them realistic! Don’t start out with lofty goals you’re unlikely to achieve. Give some thought to how many words you think you can write a week, and start there. If you find you’re hitting your weekly or daily goals easily, keep upping the stakes as your craft time becomes more ingrained in your routine.
  • Talk to friends and family about the project you’re working on. Doing so means that those close to you are likely to check in about the status of your piece — which in turn keeps you more accountable.

Arm yourself against writer’s block. Writer’s block will inevitably come, no matter how much story ideas initially inspire you. So it’s best to be prepared with tips and tricks you can use to keep yourself on track before the block hits. You can find 20 solid tips here — including how to establish a relationship with your inner critic and apps that can help you defeat procrastination or lack of motivation.

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  • Writing Prompts

70+ Fantasy Writing Prompts (+ Free Printable)

Every writer has moments when their mind goes blank . It can be frustrating and annoying when you really want to write something, but just don’t know where to start. That’s where writing prompts come in handy. Since it is J.K Rowling’s birthday in July, I figured what better way to celebrate her birthday than writing your own fantasy stories . These 70+ fantasy writing prompts for kids are an amazing source of inspiration! Most of these fantasy writing prompts relate to magic and wizardry.  Aparecium – turn that blank page into an unforgettable story!

You might also be interested in these 48 Harry Potter Writing Prompts or this list of 56 myth ideas and prompts .

Random Fantasy Prompt Generator

For more writing ideas, check out this list of 56 Dystopian writing prompts .

  • Download your free 25+ fantasy writing prompts printable.

Dark Fantasy Writing Prompts

Sci-fi fantasy prompts, fantasy prompts about dragons, epic fantasy prompts, urban fantasy prompts, modern fantasy prompts, medieval fantasy ideas, animal fantasy prompts, low fantasy prompts, fantasy story starters, how to use these fantasy writing prompts:.

70+ Fantasy Writing Prompts For Kids:

If you need inspiration for character names, see our list of fantasy characters (everything from humans to dragons and unicorns). Without further ado, here are our fantasy writing prompts:

fantasy narrative writing prompts

  • Your father is an evil sorcerer, you must stop him before he kills all humans.
  • As you walk through a dark forest, trees whisper warnings “turn away now!” (Check out this magical forest name generator for forest name ideas.)
  • You want to attend the best magic school in all of Macbury, but have no magical powers.
  • You have been cursed to never speak again by an evil witch. If you need a name for your evil witch, take a look at our awesome witch name generator .
  • You return from school one day to find a mysterious package in your room with an owl-shaped logo on it.
  • You are the only witch in a religious neighbourhood. Everyone blames you for their misfortunes.
  • The evil witch has stolen all your powers turning you into a human.

fantasy narrative writing prompts

  • A boy helps out an old lady, in return, he is given magical powers. Instead of using his powers for good, he uses it to destroy the world.
  • Your Grandad is the owner of an old antique shop. One day while helping your Grandad you discover a strange book called “The Guide to All Evil.”
  • For years you have been spending your Saturday evening in a library, every week you see the same old man sitting in the corner. One night you decide to speak to him…
  • One night you are dragged into your favourite RPG computer game, where you play a knight trying to save the land Tribula from the evil powers of the dark king.

fantasy narrative writing prompts

  • You find a magical map in your attic. The map shows the location of a moving target. One day that target appears in your back yard.
  • You have the ability to raise the dead for a few minutes and have spent the past few years hunting for the monsters that killed your parents.
  • You were the personal assistant to a crazy, old wizard who has now passed away. Before his passing, he told you to hide a mysterious bag.
  • You find a spellbook which gives you specific instructions on how to cast a body-swapping spell.
  • You are a storyteller. One day you realise that the stories you’ve been telling are true and you have the ability to control the lives of others.
  • You work part-time as a vet. One dark night, while you are closing your shop, a crazy woman barges past the doors with a strange creature in her arms.

fantasy narrative writing prompts

  • A war has been raging between the witches of the West and the witches of the East for over 100 years.
  • You are preparing for the annual top magicians competition. For the past 5 years in a row, you were voted wizard of the year. However this year there’s a new wizard in town threatening your title.
  • You are a young wizard on a school trip learning about the different magical beings that inhabit the swamps. While there you notice one by one, your fellow students start disappearing.
  • You are troublesome child, everyone including your parents and teachers have had enough of your behaviour. You find that the witches are the only ones that will take you in and take care of you.
  • You have been marked with the scar of deceit. On your 18 th Birthday, you will be summoned to the underworld.

fantasy narrative writing prompts

Download your free 25+ fantasy writing prompts printable .

Dark fantasy is a combination of fantasy and horror. It’s filled with horrific creatures, nightmares and dark magic with deadly consequences. Here are some dark fantasy writing prompts to inspire you:

  • After reading a forbidden book, the most horrific and disgusting creatures from hell crossover to Earth. 

fantasy narrative writing prompts

  • After the death of her mother, Beth turns to dark magic to resurrect the dead.
  • The toys you broke and abandoned come alive and go on a killing spree.
  • Were you seeing ghosts or were you dead?
  • Crystal was one of the most powerful witches of all-time. She defeated many evil warlocks and villains. But now she’s locked up in a mental institution. Is she really a witch or is she just crazy?

Sci-fi fantasy or science fantasy is the combination of science and fantasy elements. It takes something logical and scientific and then adds in some fantasy elements like magic or mythical creatures. 

  • After a discovery of a new planet, scientists and astronauts have to battle a mysterious race of aliens in space. For more Outerspace inspiration, check out our space writing prompts .
  • Rumours of the loch ness monster, lead you and your team to discover a new island with mythical creatures. 
  • Scientists accidentally create a vaccine which gives humans super strength, along with other traits. 

fantasy narrative writing prompts

  • Is magic real or just an illusion? Tell the story of an amateur party magician that becomes the world’s greatest sorcerer. His simple party tricks soon grow into magical abilities set out to destroy the world.

For more science fiction ideas, check out our mega list of 110 sci-fi writing prompts and story ideas .

When you think of a traditional fantasy story, dragons are one the most common fantasy elements people include. Dragons can be the centre of a storyline or just some background characters causing havoc. Here are some Fantasy prompts about dragons. You might also want to check out our awesome dragon name generator :

  • There are so many dragons out there with their own powers. Fire dragons are the most popular breed, but there’s also ice, electricity, wind, earth and many others. Imagine that you’re a young dragon with no powers. Write a story of how you discovered your abilities.

fantasy narrative writing prompts

  • In a war between dragons and humans, one dragon chooses to side with the humans. Write a fantasy war story about this dragon. 
  • Not all dragons are huge fire breathers with wings. Some are the size of flies. They fly around whispering strange things into the ears of humans. And if they manage to get inside of you, you’ll slowly start turning into a huge, horrendous dragon based on your personality.
  • Dragons rule the world and humans are their slaves. You work as a slave for the oldest, most legendary dragon in the land. Write a story from the point of view of this slave and how you manage to escape the prison you’re locked up in.
  • You find a dragon egg in your backyard. After a while, it starts cracking and out comes a baby dragon. What will happen next?

See our post on 68+ dragon story ideas for some more inspiration.

Epic fantasy is also known as high-fantasy. This is when your story includes huge fantasy elements, such as a whole new world and new species of humans or creatures. The key to epic fantasy is that your storyline should impact the entire world with huge consequences. 

  • In the fantasy world of Gidor, giants treat humans like their pets. They teach humans to do tricks, sit, play and even enter them in competitions. It’s the annual top human competition, where giants from all over the kingdom compete in a series of events to prove their human is the best. 
  • Aqurilla is a world where 94% of the world is underwater. Merpeople or mermaids and mermen are the main race in this world. The 6% that is actual land is filled with a small population of trolls that hunt merpeople. 
  • Ants the size of buses. Elephants the size of marbles. The fastest creatures in the world are snails. And the slowest are cheetahs. The kingdom of Htrae is very twisted indeed, for any normal human anyway. Imagine life if everything was the opposite.
  • An evil sorcerer has found a way to drain the magical abilities of all the top witches and wizards in the world, turning them into mortals. Write from the perspective of this evil sorcerer. 
  • Someone has unlocked the eye of Maldor, the dragon of pure darkness. Opening the world up to darkness and demons. You have to find a way to destroy the eye of Maldor before it’s too late.

Urban fantasy are fantasy stories which are set in heavily populated areas or in the city. They combine old-school fantasy elements with a modern or urban twist. Here are some cool urban fantasy prompts to get you started:

  • An office worker learns that her boss is an evil sorcerer who has made his money by playing sneaking tricks on important people.
  • A homeless person finds a magical orb in a dumpster behind a Chinese restaurant. When he rubs the orb, he can see the future. 
  • Charlotte, a mortal girl with no magical abilities falls in love with a magical elve.
  • Humans and monsters work together in the city of Belcraz. It’s complete harmony. Both races accept each other for their differences. Until one day, a secret underground group stirs up trouble.
  • Struggling to find a job and to get her life back on track, Mildrid resorts to dark magic to cheat her way through life. 

Modern or contemporary fantasy are fantasy stories set in the present time. Take some ancient elements or beliefs from hundreds or thousands of years ago and then apply them to the current timezone. Here are modern fantasy prompts to help you out:

  • Fairytale creatures start coming to life and wandering around your city. Not all of these fairytale characters have good intentions.
  • Different universes begin to collide when an evil sorcerer escapes his realm and appears in your home. 
  • A songwriter uses an ancient spellbook as inspiration for her next single. Her song, based on an old fear spell, becomes a number one hit. Soon enough, anyone listening to her song starts to lose their minds, as fear takes over. 
  • You get a mysterious email from the Dark Magicians League to join them this Saturday at a dinner party for new recruits. Excited by this invite, you take up the offer with deadly consequences,
  • Magixie is a new social media platform, where people show off their magical abilities and learn how to grow their powers. Jealous of the magical abilities of other witches and wizards on the platform, you plan to use the platform to steal their magical abilities.

Medieval fantasy is all about knights, wizards, dragons and princesses. Think of the knights of the round table, kings ruling kingdoms, assassins trying to steal the throne and fire-breathing dragons. Here are some medieval fantasy ideas:

  • Everyone made fun of Yagul the Jester until one day he summoned a fire-breathing dragon to attack the kingdom.
  • Rorik was the King’s top knight. He has fought for the kingdom in many battles and won. However, secretly he is working on a plan to kill the king and take his throne. 
  • Tired of being a poor maiden, Yvanna trains to be a secret assassin. In disguise, she manages to steal thousands in gold. For her final act, she will poison the king.
  • The king of Thahold has made a new rule: Anyone who practices witchcraft and wizardry will be beheaded. Unknowingly the king is being brainwashed by an evil sorcerer, who wants to be the only powerful magician left in the kingdom.

Animal stories are always heartfelt. Combine them with fantasy elements and you have yourself a heartfelt and exciting story to grip your readers. Here are some exciting animal fantasy prompts to get you started:

  • Some say that cats have nine lives, but it looks like your cat has a million lives! Nothing, not even old age can kill it. 
  • Isabella is a mute. While she can’t speak to humans, she can easily communicate with animals. Her magical ability means that she can have real conversations with animals and control them.
  • There’s rumour of a dark horse named Sybris appearing in the woods when the full moon is out. If you are able to tame this horse, you will gain its ability to curse people with their own fears.
  • A black cat befriends a hellhound and together they cause chaos around town. It’s all up to an old wizard’s wise old owl to save the town.
  • At birth, every human is given a special animal that will act as their guardian. At age 18, the animal is allowed to retire, while their human slowly morphs into a guardian animal to protect other humans.

Low fantasy is when fantasy events happen in a real or normal world. Normally the main characters will all be normal humans (with no powers or magical abilities) and then suddenly something magical happens to them. Here are some low fantasy prompts to inspire you:

  • Michael learns that his great grandfather was an ultimate wizard and that he has inherited some of his magical abilities. 
  • Your pet dog digs up a strange treasure chest in your backyard. Inside the treasure chest is the most beautiful necklace you’ve ever seen. When you wear this necklace you are able to control the earth with your mind.
  • On a deep-sea expedition, something goes terribly wrong and you are lost at sea. Thankfully a mermaid-like creature saves you from the deep waters.
  • For years there’s been a legend of a witch living deep in the forest. You and your friends decide to go and check if this legend is true.
  • After a near-death experience, you are able to communicate with the dead. 

Here are some exciting fantasy story starters to help you with your writing:

  • The door creaked open and out jumped…
  • I never thought I would end up here. In this strange place.
  • “Abra Kadabra, turn this stick into a flying broom! Oh, why won’t it work!”, shrieked Annabelle.
  • There was never a dull moment in Alecbra. Everyone was special in their own way.
  • A beastly shadow covered the floor, as Michael lay there paralyzed.
  • She felt the fire in her veins. It was all becoming too much. She could no longer tame the beast.

For more inspiration, check out this list of over 150 story starters .

Looking for more fantasy writing prompts? Check out our book 1,000+ Fantasy Writing Prompts + Free Plot Generator . This book is the ultimate collection of fantasy prompts organised by 20 sub-genres of fantasy. From epic tales to contemporary fantasy ideas, you’ll find it all in our book:

1,000+ Fantasy Writing Prompts + Free Plot Generator

Sit down and write for 10 or 20 minutes straight for a prompt of your choosing. You can even aim to write a short paragraph for all of these fantasy prompts. Pace yourself by doing one prompt a day. If you are struggling to write more about a prompt, then you can use the 5 W’s and 1 H technique (What, why, where, when, who and how). Ask yourself, when did this event happen or why did it happen? For example for prompt 1, you see a large opening in the tree. Think about who was present at the time you saw this, what day was it and how did you feel in this exact moment? Hopefully, the  5 W’s and 1 H technique will help you to expand your story and even motivate you to finish your story!

And if you need more inspiration, take a look at this awesome fantasy book title generator .

For more writing prompts, visit our writing prompts page. Have these fantasy writing prompts inspired you to write your own story? Join our website and write a story online to share with your friends!

fantasy Writing Prompts

Marty the wizard is the master of Imagine Forest. When he's not reading a ton of books or writing some of his own tales, he loves to be surrounded by the magical creatures that live in Imagine Forest. While living in his tree house he has devoted his time to helping children around the world with their writing skills and creativity.

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111 Awesomely Clever Narrative Writing Prompts

From the time you learn how to talk, you have stories to tell.

Faced with a classroom writing assignment, though, you can feel the fog rolling in, hiding all your best personal narrative ideas. 

To clear that fog, sometimes, all you need are some simple questions to get started, which is why so many of the personal narrative prompts in this post include them. 

You’ll find the prompts grouped by theme to make your search for ideas easier. 

What Are Narrative Prompts? 

Childhood narrative prompts, growing pains narrative prompts, overcoming adversity narrative prompts, parents and family narrative prompts, dating and friendship narrative prompts, food and drink narrative prompts, school or education narrative prompts, jobs and career narrative prompts, morality and religion writing prompts, personality narrative prompts, how will you use these narrative writing prompts.

Narrative prompts get you started telling parts of your own story . You won’t tell it all at once, but what you share in each narrative will answer a question or expand on an idea. And your readers will have a better idea of who you are and how you think. 

Here are some possible sources for personal narrative questions: 

  • Dating questions
  • Relationship questions
  • Job interview questions
  • “Never have I ever” questions
  • “Would you rather” questions

So, if you’re wondering, “What are good personal narrative topics?” think of the questions you’ve been asked that got you writing so quickly your fingers could barely keep up. 

The following list should jog some memories and provide new ideas for a personal narrative you’ll be happy to share. 

111 Narrative Writing Prompts 

Look through each category of prompts for the personal narrative topics that trigger a stream of thoughts in your mind. Jot down your ideas as they come. 

What’s your favorite memory from childhood? What impression did it make?

What’s an important memory you only know from others who remember it?

What places from your childhood do you remember most fondly? 

Did you have an imaginary friend (or friends)? What were they like?

What was the best gift you remember receiving as a child? Why was it the best?

What were your favorite childhood shows, movies, or games? 

typing on laptop at a cafe narrative writing prompts

Did you ever have a moment in the spotlight? What was it, and did you enjoy it? 

What people do you remember most fondly, and when did you last see them?

What actor would play you in a movie based on your life, and why? 

What objects tell the story of what you were like as a child? 

What was your most precious childhood possession, and why? 

Have you ever had to deal with a bully? What did you do?

What have you learned from people of different generations or backgrounds? 

What do older generations not understand about yours? How is your life different?

What’s your most embarrassing memory from your teenage years? 

What’s your proudest memory from your teenage years, and why?

What was the hardest thing about going through puberty?

When was the first time you asked someone out, and how did it go?

When was the first time someone asked you out (or to a dance)? What did you say?

Did you ever try something you wish you hadn’t? What happened? 

What did you learn to be grateful for in your teenage years? 

What habit/s did you pick up as a teen that helped you along the way?

Have you had to overcome a childhood disease or injury? 

Did you lose someone to disease, a tragic accident, or natural causes?

Were you born with a visible, physical challenge that affected your childhood?

Were you born with an invisible health challenge that affected your childhood?

Have you struggled with a mental health challenge that has affected your life ? 

Have you had to undergo extensive medical treatment for a health problem? 

Have you needed special accommodations in school, work, etc.? Describe them.

Have you experienced discrimination because of gender, race, sexual orientation…?

What are your favorite survival or coping strategies for stress, anxiety, poverty…? 

Has financial stress affected your educational, career, or relationship prospects? 

What challenges have you overcome? How have you responded to them?

Describe your parents or guardians and their parenting styles? 

Describe a favorite memory about growing up with your family? 

Are you close to your parents and/or siblings? Are any estranged from you?

What is your racial or ethnic identity, and did your family share that with you?

How have you paid tribute to loved ones you’ve lost? 

typing on laptop narrative writing prompts

To which family members did you feel closest growing up? Are you still close?

What hobbies did you pick up from your family? Which do you still have?

How did your family celebrate birthdays or holidays when you were growing up?

If you have in-laws, what is your relationship with them? Are you close with any?

Whom do you trust in your family, and whom do you keep at arm’s length? 

Do you talk to your parents (or siblings) about politics or religion? Why or why not?

How, when, and where did you meet your first love ? 

How, when, and where did you meet your first BFF and become friends?

Who were your best childhood friends, and what did you do together?

Have you ever wanted a friend to be more than that? Did you tell them?

Have you ever lost a friend who wanted to belong to a popular group? 

Have you ever had to put an end to a one-sided friendship? 

Have you ever had to break off a relationship with a toxic person? 

When have you told a lie of omission, and how did it affect your relationship?

Has anyone ever spread an unkind rumor about you? What did you do about it?

Have you ever been betrayed by a friend or family member? 

When was the last date you had that left you thinking, “More, please”? 

What were your favorite foods growing up, and how often could you have them?

What did you usually drink at home, and do you still drink them?

What did you like as a child that you don’t like now? 

What did you dislike as a child that you like now? 

What is a favorite food splurge, and what do you love about it?

How often do you cook for yourself, and what foods do you usually make? 

How often do you cook for others, and what’s the best meal you’ve prepared? 

Did you have a favorite birthday dinner or celebratory meal growing up?

What place did alcohol have in your family life, and how did that affect you?

What is your favorite baked good, and who makes the best?

When have you changed your food choices based on something you learned? 

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Who were your favorite teachers in elementary school? 

When you graduated high school, what did you want to study in college? 

Did you go to college, and what do you remember most about your first year?

When and how did you learn to manage your money? 

Could students at your high school talk openly about mental health challenges?

How have Health and Phy Ed classes influenced your body image? 

How have Health and Phy Ed classes influenced your attitude toward exercise?

What did you like most or least about the high school you attended? 

How did your school’s bullying policy affect you or someone you care about?

Have you ever acted on a dare to earn the respect or admiration of classmates? 

When did it hit home for you how different life is for poor vs. rich people?

When you were in grade school, what did you want to be when you grew up?

What was your first job? How did you get it, and how old were you?

Did you get a job in your chosen field right out of college? If so, how and when?

Do you have a life calling? And if so, is your current job part of it?

What do you hope to be doing within a year of graduating college? 

man writing on table narrative writing prompts

What have you made yourself? And does it relate to your chosen career or calling?

What would you do or create if you had all the funding you could possibly need? 

Would you rather work from home or in an office?

Would you rather work as a supervisor, a team member, or a connected hermit? 

What have you done to earn money? And what is your favorite way to do so?

Do you have (or think you will have) a career or job you love? 

What did you believe as a minor that you no longer believe? 

What did you not believe as a minor that you do believe now?

What role does religion play in your life (if any)? Has it ever (not) played a role?

How important is it that your life partner share your religious beliefs? Why?

What ethical or moral dilemmas have you faced? How did you respond?

Have you ever given money to a stranger who asked for it? 

Have you ever “paid it forward”? Or has anyone helped you to pay it forward?

How comfortable are you with lying? When have you told a lie and not regretted it?

How do your religious or spiritual beliefs differ from your parents/guardians?

Have you ever looked up to a religious leader only to be disappointed by them? 

How would you sum up your view of the afterlife — or your life’s purpose?

What do you think are the biggest strengths of your personality? 

What do you think are your greatest weaknesses?

When did you learn you’re an introvert or an extravert? 

Is your best friend an introvert or an extravert? 

What personality traits do you admire in other people? 

What personality traits have gotten you into trouble in the past? 

sitting on the floor while typing on laptop

What role does procrastination play in your life? 

What is your personal credo or mantra? When or how did you choose it?

When faced with a problem, do you rely more on your head or your heart?

How do you respond to criticism? When have you responded badly?

What motivates you? Are you driven, or do you just go with the flow?

How productive or organized are you? How does your workspace look? 

Now that you have over a hundred thought-provoking prompts for your personal narrative, which ones stood out for you? Don’t let us stop you from jotting down the ideas that are crowding your head, waiting for you to let them out. 

Get those noisy thoughts down, and spend some time fleshing them out. Allow yourself to picture moments in your past and to remember sensory details. Write those down, too. 

If the words you write resonate with you, they’ll likely do the same for your readers . 

Narrative prompts get you started telling parts of your own story. You won’t tell it all at once, but what you share in each narrative will answer a question or expand on an idea. And your readers will have a better idea of who you are and how you think.

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fantasy narrative writing prompts

34 Transformative Prompts to Unlock Your Writing, Courtesy Kelly Link

“the times when i’m happiest while writing are those times when i’ve invented a problem or a complication that needs solving.”.

This first appeared in Lit Hub’s  Craft of Writing  newsletter— sign up here .

Writing is hard work, and often frustrating, unfruitful, or downright excruciating. I spend a great deal of time avoiding even thinking about sitting down to work, and therefore, necessarily, I spend another significant amount of time persuading myself I ought to do it. And how awful and frustrating that this is the case! I love everything about books until it comes to writing them, and therefore the business of writing is reminding myself that there is something of interest in a story or an idea I can latch onto, like a tick. Or perhaps I’m more like an oyster, a reclusive and unprepossessing blob who needs a bit of grit, an irritant or a problem that I can begin to lacquer over.

The times when I’m happiest while writing are those times when I’ve invented a problem or a complication that needs solving. This might be a decision about an approach to character, or the kind of language or tone I’ve decided I want the story to inhabit. It could be deciding on a form, a word count, or a genre (or combination of genres), or a revelation or resolution that I want to hide from the reader as long as possible, while also laying down breadcrumbs that lead up to that moment which, in hindsight, have set up that turn.

In workshop I often begin by asking new writers to make a list of as many things that most delight them in narrative, so that in turn they can have in mind ways to introduce delight in their own work which is often, in beginning, daunting and un-delightful. After all, we must be our own first readers, and the possibility of delight or pleasure keeps us anchored to the work that we must do. But surprise and the chance of discovery are other tools, and worth cultivating.

The list below is one I’ve been adding to over the past month. I think of these as interruptive or transformative prompts. Some I’ve used in the past. Others I’ve lifted from books I’ve read, imagining how I might use them.

Not every story requires a transformative prompt. Not every writer needs to rely on strategies like these. But if your own work feels, at any stage, stale or familiar to you, or as if the path is so clear that there’s little point to going down it, perhaps try one of these—or even two or more in combination. You might pick one of these and apply it to something you’re already working on, or begin a new story with one of these in mind. You might also make your own list of ideas that might helpfully complicate your narrative in some way. If you’re part of a workshop you might make communally make your own list.

The last sentence reverses or subverts the meaning of the first sentence.

To be written in one hour or less.

An animal talks.

All characters are talking animals.

All characters are to be conceived of as talking animals, but this is never mentioned by the writer or the text of the story.

Epistolary story, written in haste.

Uses the language and imagery of fairy tales, but is not a fairy tale.

A story annotated with footnotes by someone who is a minor character in that story.

Language which calls attention to itself. A wall of rose briars. A thicket, entanglement, armature, incantation.

Disordered time.

The story told as plainly as possible.

A death which the narrative was not meant to encompass.

A palindrome.

The action moves in and out of a hospital, but the story is not about the cause.

The story presents a set of rules for living. Some of these to contradict.

A narrator who hates the reader and addresses them with malice at heart.

Some words, crucial to understanding of story, are blocked out.

The numinous domestic.

Continuous point of view shifts.

Meaningless sex—a feast—hedonism—indulgence of various sorts, including of language.

The style of the story to be at war with its genre or substance.

Two stories, written in tandem, in alternating sentences.

A baby is present in every scene—this baby can be used to surreal or realistic effect.

Made up words, used authoritatively, without explanation.

A character, either minor or off stage, to be treated as an almost supernaturally threatening presence, but nature of threat is never explained.

A character appears to be operating according to the rules of a genre which is not the genre of your story.

A story which embraces metaphorical language, embarrassingly so.

Use of the fantastic in such a way that it stymies metaphorical meaning as much as possible.

A story which is directly in conversation with a story by another writer. This may or may not be evident to the reader.

A matryoshka story, told at least three times, each time condensed and changed until the last version is one sentence. This sentence may be at odds with what the reader thought the story was about.

The natural world interrupts and overgrows the narrative.

The story to contain drawings. These need not be good.

A sentence to repeat throughout the story.

The story refuses to be understood. There is something else that it wants of the reader. Possibly of the writer.

_____________________________________

book of love kelly link

The Book of Love   by Kelly Link is available now via Random House. 

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David Nield

17 Tips to Take Your ChatGPT Prompts to the Next Level

5 blue balls riding on 5 randomly arranged curved black tubes against a bright green backdrop

ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and other tools like them are making artificial intelligence available to the masses. We can now get all sorts of responses back on almost any topic imaginable. These chatbots can compose sonnets, write code, get philosophical, and automate tasks.

However, while you can just type anything you like into ChatGPT and get it to understand you. There are ways of getting more interesting and useful results out of the bot. This "prompt engineering" is becoming a specialized skill of its own.

Sometimes all it takes is the addition of a few more words or an extra line of instruction and you can get ChatGPT responses that are a level above what everyone else is seeing—and we've included several examples below.

While there's lots you can do with the free version of ChatGPT, a few of these prompts require a paid ChatGPT Plus subscription —where that's the case, we've noted it in the tip.

ChatGPT can give you responses in the form of a table if you ask. This is particularly helpful for getting information or creative ideas. For example, you could tabulate meal ideas and ingredients, or game ideas and equipment, or the days of the week and how they're said in a few different languages.

Using follow-up prompts and natural language, you can have ChatGPT make changes to the tables it has drawn and even produce the tables in a standard format that can be understood by another program (such as Microsoft Excel).

If you provide ChatGPT with a typed list of information, it can respond in a variety of ways. Maybe you want it to create anagrams from a list of names, or sort a list of products into alphabetical order, or turn all the items in a list into upper case. If needed, you can then click the copy icon (the small clipboard) at the end of an answer to have the processed text sent to the system clipboard.

Screenshot of ChatGPT

Get ChatGPT to respond as your favorite author.

With some careful prompting, you can get ChatGPT out of its rather dull, matter-of-fact, default tone and into something much more interesting—such as the style of your favorite author, perhaps.

You could go for the searing simplicity of an Ernest Hemingway or Raymond Carver story, the lyrical rhythm of a Shakespearean play, or the density of a Dickens novel. The resulting prose won't come close to the genius of the actual authors themselves, but it's another way of getting more creative with the output you generate.

ChatGPT can really impress when it's given restrictions to work within, so don't be shy when it comes to telling the bot to limit its responses to a certain number of words or a certain number of paragraphs.

It could be everything from condensing the information in four paragraphs down into one, or even asking for answers with words of seven characters or fewer (just to keep it simple). If ChatGPT doesn't follow your responses properly, you can correct it, and it'll try again.

Another way of tweaking the way ChatGPT responds is to tell it who the intended audience is for its output. You might have seen WIRED's videos in which complex subjects are explained to people with different levels of understanding. This works in a similar way.

For example, you can tell ChatGPT that you are speaking to a bunch of 10-year-olds or to an audience of business entrepreneurs and it will respond accordingly. It works well for generating multiple outputs along the same theme.

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Screenshot of ChatGPT

Tell ChatGPT the audience it's writing for.

ChatGPT is a very capable prompt engineer itself. If you ask it to come up with creative and effective inputs for artificial intelligence engines such as Dall-E and Midjourney , you'll get text you can then input into other AI tools you're playing around with. You're even able to ask for tips with prompts for ChatGPT itself.

When it comes to generating prompts, the more detailed and specific you are about what you're looking for the better: You can get the chatbot to extend and add more detail to your sentences, you can get it to role-play as a prompt generator for a specific AI tool, and you can tell it to refine its answers as you add more and more information.

While ChatGPT is based around text, you can get it to produce pictures of a sort by asking for ASCII art. That's the art made up of characters and symbols rather than colors. The results won't win you any prizes, but it's pretty fun to play around with.

The usual ChatGPT rules apply, in that the more specific you are in your prompt the better, and you can get the bot to add new elements and take elements away as you go. Remember the limitations of the ASCII art format though—this isn't a full-blown image editor.

Screenshot of ChatGPT

A ChatGPT Plus subscription comes with image generation.

If you use ChatGPT Plus , it's got the DALL-E image generator right inside it, so you can ask for any kind of photo, drawing, or illustration you like. As with text, try to be as explicit as possible about what it is you want to see, and how it's shown; do you want something that looks like a watercolor painting, or like it was taken by a DSLR camera? You can have some real fun with this: Put Columbo in a cyberpunk setting, or see how Jurassic Park would look in the Victorian era. The possibilities are almost endless.

You don't have to do all the typing yourself when it comes to ChatGPT. Copy and paste is your friend, and there's no problem with pasting in text from other sources. While the input limit tops out at around 4,000 words, you can easily split the text you're sending the bot into several sections and get it to remember what you've previously sent.

Perhaps one of the best ways of using this approach is to get ChatGPT to simplify text that you don't understand—the explanation of a difficult scientific concept, for instance. You can also get it to translate text into different languages, write it in a more engaging or fluid style, and so on.

If you want to go exploring, ask ChatGPT to create a text-based choose-your-own adventure game. You can specify the theme and the setting of the adventure, as well as any other ground rules to put in place. When we tried this out, we found ourselves wandering through a spooky castle, with something sinister apparently hiding in the shadows.

Screenshot of ChatGPT

ChatGPT is able to create text-based games for you to play.

Another way to improve the responses you get from ChatGPT is to give it some data to work with before you ask your question. For instance, you could give it a list of book summaries together with their genre, then ask it to apply the correct genre label to a new summary. Another option would be to tell ChatGPT about activities you enjoy and then get a new suggestion.

There's no magic combination of words you have to use here. Just use natural language as always, and ChatGPT will understand what you're getting at. Specify that you're providing examples at the start of your prompt, then tell the bot that you want a response with those examples in mind.

You can ask ChatGPT for feedback on any of your own writing, from the emails you're sending to friends, to the short story you're submitting to a competition, to the prompts you're typing into the AI bot. Ask for pointers on spelling, grammar, tone, readability, or anything else you want to scrutinize.

ChatGPT cleared the above paragraph as being clear and effective, but said it could use a call to action at the end. Try this prompt today!

Screenshot of ChatGPT

Get ChatGPT to give you feedback on your own writing.

In the same way that ChatGPT can mimic the style of certain authors that it knows about, it can also play a role: a frustrated salesman, an excitable teenager (you'll most likely get a lot of emoji and abbreviations back), or the iconic western film star John Wayne.

There are countless roles you can play around with. These prompts might not score highly in terms of practical applications, but they're definitely a useful insight into the potential of these AI chatbots.

You can type queries into ChatGPT that you might otherwise type into Google, looking for answers: Think "how much should I budget for a day of sightseeing in London?" or "what are the best ways to prepare for a job interview?" for example. Almost anything will get a response of some sort—though as always, don't take AI responses as being 100 percent accurate 100 percent of the time.

If you're using the paid ChatGPT Plus tool, it will actually search the web (with Bing) and provide link references for the answers it gives. If you're using the free version of ChatGPT, it'll mine the data its been trained on for answers, so they might be a little out of date or less reliable.

Your answers can be seriously improved if you give ChatGPT some ingredients to work with before asking for a response. They could be literal ingredients—suggest a dish from what's left in the fridge—or they could be anything else.

So don't just ask for a murder mystery scenario. Also list out the characters who are going to appear. Don't just ask for ideas of where to go in a city; specify the city you're going to, the types of places you want to see, and the people you'll have with you.

Your prompts don't always have to get ChatGPT to generate something from scratch: You can start it off with something, and then let the AI finish it off. The model will take clues from what you've already written and build on it.

This can come in handy for everything from coding a website to composing a poem—and you can then get ChatGPT to go back and refine its answer as well.

You've no doubt noticed how online arguments have tended toward the binary in recent years, so get ChatGPT to help add some gray between the black and the white. It's able to argue both sides of an argument if you ask it to, including both pros and cons.

From politics and philosophy to sports and the arts, ChatGPT is able to sit on the fence quite impressively—not in a vague way, but in a way that can help you understand tricky issues from multiple perspectives.

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Guest Essay

The Most Important Writing Exercise I’ve Ever Assigned

An illustration of several houses. One person walks away from a house with a second person isolated in a window.

By Rachel Kadish

Ms. Kadish is the author of the novel “The Weight of Ink.”

“Write down a phrase you find abhorrent — something you yourself would never say.”

My students looked startled, but they cooperated. They knew I wouldn’t collect this exercise; what they wrote would be private unless they chose to share it. All that was required of them was participation.

In silence they jotted down a few words. So far, so good. We hadn’t yet reached the hard request: Spend 10 minutes writing a monologue in the first person that’s spoken by a fictitious character who makes the upsetting statement. This portion typically elicits nervous glances. When that happens, I remind students that their statement doesn’t represent them and that speaking as if they’re someone else is a basic skill of fiction writers. The troubling statement, I explain, must appear in the monologue, and it shouldn’t be minimized, nor should students feel the need to forgive or account for it. What’s required is simply that somewhere in the monologue there be an instant — even a fleeting phrase — in which we can feel empathy for the speaker. Perhaps she’s sick with worry over an ill grandchild. Perhaps he’s haunted by a love he let slip away. Perhaps she’s sleepless over how to keep her business afloat and her employees paid. Done right, the exercise delivers a one-two punch: repugnance for a behavior or worldview coupled with recognition of shared humanity.

For more than two decades, I’ve taught versions of this fiction-writing exercise. I’ve used it in universities, middle schools and private workshops, with 7-year-olds and 70-year-olds. But in recent years openness to this exercise and to the imaginative leap it’s designed to teach has shrunk to a pinprick. As our country’s public conversation has gotten angrier, I’ve noticed that students’ approach to the exercise has become more brittle, regardless of whether students lean right or left.

Each semester, I wonder whether the aperture through which we allow empathy has so drastically narrowed as to foreclose a full view of our fellow human beings. Maybe there are times so contentious or so painful that people simply withdraw to their own silos. I’ve certainly felt that inward pull myself. There are times when a leap into someone else’s perspective feels impossible.

But leaping is the job of the writer, and there’s no point it doing it halfway. Good fiction pulls off a magic trick of absurd power: It makes us care. Responding to the travails of invented characters — Ahab or Amaranta, Sethe or Stevens, Zooey or Zorba — we might tear up or laugh, or our hearts might pound. As readers, we become invested in these people, which is very different from agreeing with or even liking them. In the best literature, characters are so vivid, complicated, contradictory and even maddening that we’ll follow them far from our preconceptions; sometimes we don’t return.

Unflinching empathy, which is the muscle the lesson is designed to exercise, is a prerequisite for literature strong enough to wrestle with the real world. On the page it allows us to spot signs of humanity; off the page it can teach us to start a conversation with the strangest of strangers, to thrive alongside difference. It can even affect those life-or-death choices we make instinctively in a crisis. This kind of empathy has nothing to do with being nice, and it’s not for the faint of heart.

Even within the safety of the page, it’s tempting to dodge empathy’s challenge, instead demonizing villains and idealizing heroes, but that’s when the needle on art’s moral compass goes inert. Then we’re navigating blind: confident that we know what the bad people look like and that they’re not us — and therefore we’re at no risk of error.

Our best writers, in contrast, portray humans in their full complexity. This is what Gish Jen is doing in the short story “Who’s Irish?” and Rohinton Mistry in the novel “A Fine Balance.” Line by line, these writers illuminate the inner worlds of characters who cause harm — which is not the same as forgiving them. No one would ever say that Toni Morrison forgives the character Cholly Breedlove, who rapes his daughter in “The Bluest Eye.” What Ms. Morrison accomplishes instead is the boldest act of moral and emotional understanding I’ve ever seen on the page.

In the classroom exercise, the upsetting phrases my students scribble might be personal (“You’ll never be a writer,” “You’re ugly”) or religious or political. Once a student wrote a phrase condemning abortion as another student across the table wrote a phrase defending it. Sometimes there are stereotypes, slurs — whatever the students choose to grapple with. Of course, it’s disturbing to step into the shoes of someone whose words or deeds repel us. Writing these monologues, my graduate students, who know what “first person” means, will dodge and write in third, with the distanced “he said” instead of “I said.”

But if they can withstand the challenges of first person, sometimes something happens. They emerge shaken and eager to expand on what they’ve written. I look up from tidying my notes to discover students lingering after dismissal with that alert expression that says the exercise made them feel something they needed to feel.

Over the years, as my students’ statements became more political and as jargon (“deplorables,” “snowflakes”) supplanted the language of personal experience, I adapted the exercise. Worrying that I’d been too sanguine about possible pitfalls, I made it entirely silent, so no student would have to hear another’s troubling statement or fear being judged for their own. Any students who wanted to share their monologues with me could stay after class rather than read to the group. Later, I added another caveat: If your troubling statement is so offensive, you can’t imagine the person who says it as a full human being, choose something less troubling. Next, I narrowed the parameters: No politics. The pandemic’s virtual classes made risk taking harder; I moved the exercise deeper into the semester so students would feel more at ease.

After one session, a student stayed behind in the virtual meeting room. She’d failed to include empathy in her monologue about a character whose politics she abhorred. Her omission bothered her. I was impressed by her honesty. She’d constructed a caricature and recognized it. Most of us don’t.

For years, I’ve quietly completed the exercise alongside my students. Some days nothing sparks. When it goes well, though, the experience is disquieting. The hard part, it turns out, isn’t the empathy itself but what follows: the annihilating notion that people whose fears or joys or humor I appreciate may themselves be indifferent to all my cherished conceptions of the world.

Then the 10-minute timer sounds, and I haul myself back to the business of the classroom — shaken by the vastness of the world but more curious about the people in it. I put my trust in that curiosity. What better choice does any of us have? And in the sanctuary of my classroom I keep trying, handing along what literature handed me: the small, sturdy magic trick any of us can work, as long as we’re willing to risk it.

Rachel Kadish is the author of the novel “The Weight of Ink.”

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    50 fantasy writing prompts to inspire November 10, 2023 by Richard Leave a Comment Step into a realm of magic and wonder with this collection of 50 fantasy writing prompts. From tales of powerful wizards to adventures with dragons, angels, and mystical lands, let these story ideas spark your imagination.

  17. Best Fantasy Story Ideas to Inspire Your Writing

    ️ Fantasy Short Story Prompts We found 27 fantasy stories that match your search 🔦 reset A legendary dragon is on its way to capture a princess. Plot twist: the princess kidnaps it, and temporarily locks it away in her tower to teach it a lesson. Fantasy A magician, a troll, and a college student walk into a bar. Fantasy

  18. 101 Fantastical Fantasy Story Prompts

    Toy Story. Groundhog Day. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Harry Potter. Twilight. The Wizard of Oz. MCU and DC movies. In the spirit of helping writers find those seeds, here we offer 101 originally conceived fantasy story prompts that you can use as inspiration for your next fantasy story.

  19. 33 Fantasy Writing Prompts

    Come up with your NEXT great book idea with over 200 unique writing prompts spanning 8 different genres. Use for a story, scene, character inspo, and more! Here are 33 fantasy writing prompts that you can use for writing exercises, story ideas, or anything else! Characters fall through a mirror and land in a lake of a new universe.

  20. 1800+ Creative Writing Prompts To Inspire You Right Now

    Sign up Sign in with Google Facebook Showing 2084 prompts Write a story about an artist whose work has magical properties. LIVE - Fantasy Write a story where your character is travelling a road that has no end. LIVE - Fantasy Write a story where the laws of time and space begin to dissolve. LIVE - Fantasy

  21. 70+ Fantasy Writing Prompts (+ Free Printable)

    Every writer has moments when their mind goes blank. It can be frustrating and annoying when you really want to write something, but just don't know where to start. That's where writing prompts come in handy. Since it is J.K Rowling's birthday in July, I figured what better way to celebrate her birthday than writing your own fantasy stories.

  22. 111 Awesomely Clever Narrative Writing Prompts

    111 Awesomely Clever Narrative Writing Prompts. From the time you learn how to talk, you have stories to tell. Faced with a classroom writing assignment, though, you can feel the fog rolling in, hiding all your best personal narrative ideas. To clear that fog, sometimes, all you need are some simple questions to get started, which is why so ...

  23. ServiceScape Writing Prompt Generator

    Need fiction writing inspiration? The ServiceScape Writing Prompt Generator has hundreds of creative writing ideas. From Fantasy to Science Fiction to Horror to Romance, our free and easy-to-use writing prompt generator can get your gears turning for whatever fiction story you want to write.

  24. 34 Transformative Prompts to Unlock Your Writing, Courtesy Kelly Link

    A matryoshka story, told at least three times, each time condensed and changed until the last version is one sentence. This sentence may be at odds with what the reader thought the story was about. The natural world interrupts and overgrows the narrative. The story to contain drawings. These need not be good. A sentence to repeat throughout the ...

  25. Portfolio: blueangel3

    Writing.Com is the online community for creative writing, fiction writing, story writing, poetry writing, writing contests, writing portfolios, writing help, and writing writers.

  26. 2024 February Flash Fiction Challenge: Day 27

    Write a piece of flash fiction each day of February with the February Flash Fiction Challenge, led by Managing Editor Moriah Richard. Each day, receive a prompt, example story, and write your own. Today's prompt is to write about someone following in their parent's footsteps.

  27. 17 Tips to Take Your ChatGPT Prompts to the Next Level

    You can ask ChatGPT for feedback on any of your own writing, from the emails you're sending to friends, to the short story you're submitting to a competition, to the prompts you're typing into the ...

  28. Opinion

    For more than two decades, I've taught versions of this fiction-writing exercise. I've used it in universities, middle schools and private workshops, with 7-year-olds and 70-year-olds.